CORPORATE sponsorship for Essex Police, as suggested in a consultation document, would certainly be an interesting step. But it demands careful handling and monitoring.
Yet there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the idea, or with the general trend of the police towards a more commercial approach to funding.
Success depends on good taste and choosing the right sort of company as sponsors. Some types of business, fast food companies for instance, would have to be ruled out, however useful hamburger vans might prove for secret surveillance operations.
Yet if corporate sponsorship does deliver the goods as envisaged, the gain will be enormous. Six hundred extra police officers on Essex streets are promised by police chief Roger Baker if corporate sponsorship goes ahead.
That, surely, is worth the price of a few adverts on their truncheons.
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