DON’T waste your time calling for more bobbies on the beat: if you want an effective rapid-reaction police force you just need to inject some drama into your distress call.
That would appear to be the lesson from Bristol yesterday where a father reported that his car had been stolen from outside a butcher’s shop with his 10-month-old daughter inside.
A police helicopter was summoned within minutes of the call coming through at 9.20am and dozens of officers were deployed to hunt for the child.
Radio stations asked the people of Bristol to look out for a short-haired black girl in a dark blue all-in-one Babygro. The girl’s grandmother appeared on television to plead for her safe return.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the intensity of the