I HAVE read the report (March 3) where Malcolm Dickson, the Deputy Chief Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland, advocates a debate on whether police recruits should pay for their own training.

Another attempt to save the central government budget and put out training to the private sector?

Would these debates end with the fire service, ambulance service, armed forces and staff of other agencies whose training is funded from central government being required to fund their own training so that these respective agencies can also recruit fully trained staff?

This type of recruitment would most certainly discourage recruits from applying to serve the communities where they live and discriminate against those who have no income, the lower-paid and the unemployed. The police service recruits across the board irrespective of race, creed or background. These recruits need not have any formal education other than life experience. Some of the more senior officers began careers in the police service from lowly backgrounds, getting to where they are by sheer hard work.

The Scottish Police College is a world-renowned training facility turning out some of the best trained and respected police personnel in the world. There is no need to repair what is not broken.

My advice to Mr Dickson is to concentrate on what he is employed to do: ensuring that the police service is fully funded by the government and that officers are trained to do the job that they were employed for.

We pay for what we get, and I for one do not object in my taxes being used to train current and any future police constables who do a sterling job, sometimes under arduous circumstances.

Meston Christie, 7 Scotstown Road, Aberdeen