OVER the course of a year, how often have you seen a police car in one of our rural areas?

Once? Twice? Never? The chances are, it’s usually after a crime has taken place.

Gone are the small police stations which protected our rural outposts and the criminals have taken notice.

Police forces have long faced the charge that they are not visible enough, but rural Furness residents have more reason to complain than any townie.

Serious crime has changed – shifting online, becoming sophisticated and well-organised and spanning county boundaries.

Investigating vile digital crime such as child sexual exploitation takes resources. To cut costs, there has been a big shift towards centralisation.

Nowadays, a significant chunk of police time is devoted to helping those who have fallen through the gaps in our mental health and care systems.

The vision of modern policing also seems to place more emphasis on quasi-social work and community engagement, rather than old-fashioned coppering and collar-feeling.

Increasingly, the police are expected to investigate social media, so is it really any wonder that our officers are busy at their desks when the villains are looting farm buildings?

Despite regular calls for more visible policing, the idea that crime would magically stop, remains a fallacy.