We all want and expect the police force to be above suspicion and corruption. They are the people we were taught we could always trust. But although there may still be many decent police officers around, recently we have heard too much about corruption, the organised lying after Hillsborough, and now Orgreave, the officers who rape young women in police stations, the unnecessary brutality. We no longer know which of our police officers we can trust. Most ordinary people have little experience of the police and policing, and cannot tell which officers are the good ones and which the bad.

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