PC Gerald Walker should be alive today. He was killed in January last year while trying to stop David Parfitt, a drug user and convicted robber, driving off in a stolen taxi. Walker suffered head injuries after being dragged along by the speeding car and died in hospital. Parfitt was out of prison on an early release scheme and as he had breached his release licence more than three months earlier, he should have been back behind bars.

The inspector of probation, Rod Morgan, was asked to inquire into the tragedy, and he reported back last week with a series of recommendations. Morgan was certainly right in highlighting the need for cleaner and swifter coordination between prisons, probation and police.