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Daily Record
Daily Record
Entertainment
Tasha Hall

Lorraine Kelly slams police presence on streets and 'astonished' at lack of trust in force

Lorraine Kelly has hit out at the "bobbies on the beat" as she says TV icon PC Catherine Calderwood should be drafted in to sort out crime across the country.

The Scots television presenter made some snide comments on her morning show on Tuesday directed towards the police forces in the UK whilst speaking to Labour MP Jess Phillips, shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding.

The pair talked about strained local community policing after the shocking discovery of Nicola Bulley's body which was found among reeds in the River Wyre in Lancashire just a mile from where the dog walker was last spotted.

The 45-year-old mother of two was formally identified on Monday after a three-week-long search as her family has put forward eye-jerking tributes as they say they can now let her rest.

And Lorraine was taking no prisoners as she was "astonished" that the conversation of local community policing had even to be discussed as a problem, "reigniting" the topic of trust in the police force which she argues is becoming a growing issue.

Nicola Bulley's body was found on February 19 (Lancashire Constabulary)

Lorraine was "aghast" the Labour MP even had to point all of this out and said it was "just terrible" that people in this country feel they can't pick up the phone and ring the police.

The 63-year-old presenter said: "What we need is probably an army of middle-aged women like Catherine from Happy Valley."

And she pointed out that recruitment is also vital, as she says there are not enough police officers out on the streets just now.

Lorraine quipped: "There are some very dodgy characters, that's putting it mildly, who have been recruited."

"Now that has to be sorted out as well, surely!"

Ms Phillips chortled as she suggested "a Catherine Calderwood in every town and street, the world would be a better place," as Lorraine absolutely agreed.

Labour MP, Ms Phillips, is calling for more neighbourhood police on the streets to build trust among the public again. She also hit out and said women across the country have "never felt so let down by the police, and weary of them."

Ms Phillips added: "For people such as domestic violence and sexual violence victims it is not a privilege they can afford, they have to be able to trust the police.

"We need to be able to rely on police officers and so we have got to find a way to build that community trust. What we want to see is proper neighbourhood police teams back in our communities to do that work."

In the similar tragic cases of Sarah Everard and former Metropolitan Police officer who was convicted of rape David Carrick, Ms Phillips doesn't believe the trust can be re-built without "vital" community policing measures.

Police on patrol in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, where Nicola Bulley went missing (PA)

The Labour party have plans to put 13,000 new officers out on the streets targeted towards more focused community policing and has asked for a set of standards from the home secretary to be enforced as a blanket across all police headquarters to be adhered to.

Ms Phillips also slammed the repercussions for officers found to have broken conduct in serious cases of domestic or sexual violence who end up on desk duties adding the public will be "aghast" that this is how the public service operates.

Lancashire police faced a lot of criticism on how they handled the Bulley case. It comes as police officers were told to drop unauthorised contact with journalists on the back of the Levison inquiry in 2012 regarding culture, practices and ethics of the press.

The public has questioned that if the police forces believed these details were important why had they not released them earlier and informed the media.

Stephen Wright, who did the crime beat at the Daily Mail for years, said: "If media outlets had been told, in the strictest confidence, of this important context to her case then it [the Bulley case] might not have turned into the circus that it arguably has."

Media watchdog Ofcom has said it is “extremely concerned” by comments from the family of Nicola Bulley and it has written to ITV and Sky “to ask them to explain their actions” after her family questioned the role of the media during the investigation.

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