I HAD a pleasant encounter with one of Glasgow's Community Enforcement Officers, who patrol the city centre in pairs.
By the uniform you'd take them for policemen, which of course they are not. I noticed he wore a small video camera on his jacket, beside a badge clearly warning that CCTV was in operation: a sort of Noli Me Tangere. Among other uses, this is obviously to make members of the public think twice before assaulting him.
They are a comforting and helpful presence on our streets, but as I bade him farewell I couldn't suppress the mischievous thought that we were very far indeed from 1970s San Francisco and the community enforcement philosophy of a distant cousin of theirs: You've gotta ask yourself one question, Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?
Martin Ketterer,
Tavistock Drive,
Newlands, Glasgow.
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