TIME and time again we hear from politicians who vow they will cut down the red tape for police to free up more time for them to be out and about on patrol.

And today we have a classic example as to how bureaucracy can sometimes work in action with thieves attacking allotments being turned from one crime into 20.

Plots secretary Brian Grainger thought he was doing the right thing and would, in fact, have saved the police a great deal of time by collating details from his 19 colleagues about what damage they had suffered and what tools had been stolen.

But he was told that each victim must report their own crime so all the details were absolutely complete, thus turning one crime into 20 and meaning another 19 calls to the already hard-pressed 101 number.

It also pushes the crime statistics up – and some would argue unnecessarily.

Although the police response is certainly understandable in terms of the information required on each form, noting down all the details would not necessarily do much to aid the investigation once Brian had provided them with a detailed description of what had been taken.

The police are facing ever more pressure so perhaps it’s time to look again at all the form-filling that needs to be done and possibly give officers leeway as to when to get details from all the crime victims or when a synopsis from one will do.

After all, it’s in everyone’s interests to keep our bobbies on the beat as much as possible.