SIR - Police cuts have been blamed for a recent spike in crime, low detection rates and low reporting rates recently. But law enforcement's decision to have an invisible force, taking police off the streets, was taken decades ago in most of Britain, long before these cuts.

It is not so much the funding that's the problem, it's the way forces are run. It is clear to anyone with common sense that criminals, petty or otherwise, are encouraged by the absence of visible officers. Why can't they see this? I know the police can't be everywhere but they're almost nowhere.

The decision to make UK police a reactionary force, turning up after a crime when it's too late, and not a preventative force, has had disastrous consequences for law and order in this country.

Alan Bates, Bowland Avenue, Baildon