Putting off the future criminals

That is what is happening with a dedicated team of detectives looking into years old crimes which were not solved at the time and whose trails are now cold. With breakthroughs in scientific investigations, it is now possible to piece together strong cases against suspects years after offences. But should police be concentrating on today’s offences and offenders?

It is a difficult balancing act with no right answer. But if a few successes in bringing yesterday’s culprits to justice result in tomorrow’s would-be criminals not committing offences, then there will be some justification.

Satisfaction figures with ambulances

ON the face of it, we are faced with an unacceptable situation in South Yorkshire, where figures show ambulance response times falling below Government targets. But closer examination tells a different picture.

In Sheffield and Barnsley, ambulance crews actually do better than expected, though in Rotherham and Doncaster there is room for improvement. This could be due to a host of reasons, not least local traffic conditions.

On the whole, the public is happy with the service from our ambulance crews. And judgement on them should be based on more than a few figures.

It’s jams tomorrow

AS the Bank Holiday nears and airport delays seem to become a sad inevitability, is it any surprise so many travellers give up on the idea of flight? Tired of baggage chaos, long security queues and shoddy service, more than half of us decided it’s better to travel by road. Perhaps we should wait until next Tuesday, though, and ask them how they enjoyed that weekend break sitting in a motorway contra-flow system.