The question we are often asked is ‘can you be a Christian and a police officer?’ We have to answer a resounding ‘yes’ because there is no conflict of faith in carrying out this God-given occupation. But many in the Christian community still have doubts and have difficulty in understanding the work and pressures that those who serve in this way have to face.

It has recently been calculated that in the last eleven years 3,600 new offences have been created by Parliament. Even more astonishing is the fact that of these, no fewer than 1,036 can result in the imposition of a prison sentence. In other words, there has been a new imprisonable offence put on the statute book on average every four days over that period. The vast majority of these will involve the police in one way or another so, in order to enforce the law, they have to know the law and be able to apply it at a minute’s notice. A pressure often ignored by the legislators.

Public order, violent crimes and domestic abuse are just some of the frequent incidents dealt with by police officers. Then, of course, they have to go home and try to live normal family lives. When an officer who has recently dealt with the death of a child through an act of dangerous driving is instructed by a speeding motorist to ‘go and catch some real criminals’, it is difficult not to react.