SIR - My heartiest congratulations to beginner PC Katie Curtis (Worcester News, July 26).

Forty-six arrests in 10 weeks sounds good to me. We would all like her to do the same again, please.

However, the story says "her early arrests are now developing into court hearings and she is spending more time preparing for court dates".

Herein lies the main problem. The villains on Katie's patch can all sleep easy from now on, as the good lady will be spending, and wasting, hours and hours of her precious patrol time, sitting in court waiting rooms for witnesses who fail to appear, court delays due to "technical details", sickness, holidays and countless other reasons for not getting on with the business. Free of these encumbrances, Katie has been available to go out and make arrests and do proper police work, as we all want her to.

But this honeymoon period is now over, for at this point, the state steps in and bogs it all down. Her "bulk arrest" days are now over! If only a way could be found to get another 500 Katies on our streets, doing what they are good at, the crime rate would drop dramatically.

The bottleneck is with the paperwork and the courts - plus a severe lack of patrolling police constables. The Panda car has a lot to answer for!

STANLEY PARR,

Pershore.