Mike Penning 'on the beat;.
12th September 2007
Mike Penning joins Hemel's police for a Friday night 'on the beat'.
Local MP Mike Penning joined local police officers for part of a shift on Friday 7th September to see for himself the situations they encounter and the problems they face.
He joined officers from Hemel Hempstead Police Station as they patrolled the town centre and Jarman Park.
Commenting afterwards, Mike said: ”It is extremely valuable for me to be able to join our front line police officers and I thank them for, once again, giving me the opportunity to do so. They do a tremendous job considering the problems they face and the limited number of officers they have. We all owe them our full support in the difficult work they do.
“I find it very useful to be able to discuss the problems facing frontline police officers directly with them and not hear about the problems second-hand from the top management.”
Mike joined the officers at Jarman Park where hundreds of teenagers had converged for a night out at Dacorum’s most-popular entertainment destination.
“It is a real eye-opener to see the number of people visiting Jarman Park and the kind of situations our police are called on to deal with. They are to be highly commended on their professionalism and dedication when you consider that resources are so thinly stretched.
“We clearly need more police on the beat and I totally agree with the comments made today by Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, when he says today that the police are bogged down in too much red tape.”
