The Evening Standard carried a report on 14 December saying that single
officer patrolling was being increased in London. This is being done
primarily to stop coppers chatting to one another and ignoring what is
going on around them.

The older officers have no problem with single officer patrols: the
younger ones - bless their hearts - are said to be often afraid to go
out on their own. Special training courses to allay their fears are
being developed.

Just what the public want: timid, bottling coppers. What on earth are
the police doing employing such people?

These days I notice not only that coppers are getting younger but
smaller and unfitter. (I am only 5'11" but I am taller than most of the
youngest). Most of them could not handle themselves in a fight. One
suspects that is what lies at the root of their fear. The problem is
enhanced by the moronic pc driven decision to allow women to take on
full male policing duties.

I live in the centre of London between Euston and St Pancras Stations.
There are hordes of police around and in the stations and in the main
roads outside the stations. . The police stopped foot patrolling the
minor streets 10-15 years ago.

There are of course circumstances and areas in which single beat
patrolling is wrong, but even in London the vast majority of the time
and in almost all areas single beat policing is possible and desirable.