Every so often, I spend time with the West Mercia police, joining them to look more closely at the work they do.

In the past, I have been out with them on Friday and Saturday nights across the district. Last year I joined a patrol covering the rural areas.

Last week, I was keen to find out more about their activities behind the scenes, so spent some time at their headquarters in Hindlip.

Hindlip is where the command centre is, but it is also home of their training and investigations. The command centre is sensible, combining both the police and fire and rescue services. It makes sense.

Having a single control and call centre for emergency services (the ambulance service has different operational imperatives, so has its own centre) brings together those services that are needed when things go wrong.

Of course, there is a lot to see at Hindlip and in the time I had, we looked at forensics and firearms training.

We have all seen movies that show what the police can achieve, but when you take a look at the laboratories doing the work, you really get to understand just how advanced our police really are when it comes to gathering evidence.

From fingerprints to DNA testing, the technology available is impressive.

Of course, the technology must keep pace with wider advances. Analysing computers and technology is a continuously developing science, having to keep pace with everyday technological advances that we all enjoy.

And for those officers doing the searches on computers, whilst much of it is seeking evidence in wider crimes, some of it is is harrowing online images of abuse.

It is sobering to learn that there is a welfare officer making sure those who have to look at unpleasant images are themselves cared for.

And for the front line, there is training in firearms. It is reassuring to know that these officers are trained to an incredibly high degree, sure in their ability to both to use firearms to a an incredibly highly trained degree, and their ability to make life and death decisions on when to pull the trigger.

The government is funding 20,000 more police officers. That means 320 for us here in West Mercia.

But we must not forget that every officer we see on the streets needs support from an extensive team behind them.

Yet again, I am reassured that we are in safe hands with our hard working, dedicated and brave police.