As part of the initiative to raise the profile of the police, and to enable people to report incidents, a new type of police person is to be introduced.

The advent of the citizen police person is now upon us. (Evening Advertiser, November 17).

I suppose this major change in policing is what Chief Inspector Maslen was referring to in February of this year, when he proudly proclaimed that the savings engineered by reducing traffic warden services would "release police resources to reduce, detect and prevent crime."

This new initiative will enable people in rural areas to report incidents to a friendly face all you need to know is when the "citizen police person" is in your area.

While we all welcome proper policing initiatives which involve the use of fully trained, uniformed police officers, I believe that the use of civilian workers should not be extended to operational front line activities.

A marked police vehicle should be manned by properly mandated constables who will have received extensive training to ensure they can manage in whatever situation they find themselves.

Surely, rather than allow civilians to operate in a role which has no authority, power of arrest or legal standing, it would be more propitious to utilise their skills within a police station and allow trained officers to patrol the streets.

This is not a Luddite reaction to change, but represents a genuine concern that senior police officers should not be allowed to introduce cut price policing under the guise of providing reassurance of a police presence in rural areas.

The Swindon divisions have, over time, been centralised within a single command centre the rural areas have been stripped of their local police presence.

It is interesting to note that on-scene response times to rural areas was yet another failure in the targets set by the police for 2000/2001.

This new service may well be a public relations success, but it will not be a substitute for the presence and authority of a police constable.

Des Morgan

Caraway Drive

Swindon