I WHOLE-HEARTEDLY agree with Joanna Evans (You Say, June 21). Comparisons between public and private sectors are increasingly common and increasingly spurious.

Satisfying customers when you can chose them by careful selection on the basis of profitability, company resources and marketing strategies is one thing.

In contrast to the private sector - and rightly so - the police cannot operate in such circumstances.

Pleasing some of the people all of the time - as I am expected to do - is much harder.

The 25 per cent rise in the number of calls to the police from across south Worcestershire this year, combined with the fact that I do not have a bottomless pit of officers, inevitably means I will fail to meet some of the public's diverse expectations of its police service.

Whether I like it or not, I must make choices.

In doing so, my priority is to deliver effective emergency services based not only on the information provided but also on the resources available to me at the time.

My next priority is increasingly to ensure that the overstretched police personnel delivering those vital and valuable services to communities do not become disheartened by the increasing amount of ill-informed and unsupported criticism of the police in the media.

Miss Evans' comments will be appreciated by police officers everywhere.

SUPT SIMON ADAMS,

Divisional Commander,

West Mercia Constabulary.