IT'S a sad fact of life that attacks on police officers are increasing as violence approaches epidemic levels.

Yet it is reassuring to see we have a police and crime commissioner committed to finding a cure, offering added protections to frontline officers. During my time as a journalist I've witnessed firsthand the abhorrent verbal and physical abuse West Mercia Police officers have to contend with and observed, with growing admiration, the courage, stoicism and professionalism with which they meet that challenge. Deterrent sentences are one way of tackling the problem but do they provide a long term solution? The roots of such violence go so deep that such measures may only be a tiny sticking plaster on what is now a gaping and infected wound. The police and courts can only do so much. There is no magic pill.

Violence, exacerbated by drug and alcohol abuse, is fuelled by the breakdown of traditional family life which provides stability, structure, discipline and above all else, meaning. There are also those who question, not without reason, the rehabilitative merits of prison sentences.