§ 29. Mr. Tilneyasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will call for reports from chief constables as to the approximate percentage of the police forces of the country out on the beat each day either on foot or foot-propelled bicycle.
§ Mr. CallaghanNo, Sir. With the encouragement of my Department, all police forces now operate modern systems of policing the beats and making the most efficient use of their manpower. The information requested could not be obtained without disproportionate effort.
§ Mr. TilneyI appreciate that the Panda cars have reduced crime on the roads, but does the Secretary of State not think that the lone driver has to keep his eye on the road, and that, therefore, criminals who would be apparent to a policeman walking or on a slow moving bicycle will escape the motoring policeman's eye?
§ Mr. CallaghanThis is a question of who does what. There are policemen walking the beat and riding bicycles and in cars. It is a case of dividing up the effort as the chief constable thinks appropriate.
§ Mr. OgdenWould not my right hon. Friend agree that a policeman in a motor car can survey a much larger area, either in the city or in the country, at any time than one poor constable walking about, as my grandfather had to do for so many years in Liverpool?
§ Mr. CallaghanThis is certainly true. The isolation of the individual constable has been very much lessened by the tremendous increase in individual radios, which now exist, of course, in Liverpool as elsewhere.