THE Police and Crime Commissioner for Greater Manchester is wrong in his assertion that police officers are “public servants who have a duty to ensure that people’s freedom to peacefully protest is both facilitated and respected”, as reported in the Bolton News, March 4, 2014.

One would expect him to be aware that all police officers in England and Wales are constables and derive their powers from this office.

They are servants of the Crown and are not employees like other people working in the public services. Police officers, irrespective of rank, have personal liability for their actions or lack of them and are in effect independent legal officers, and not agents of either police force or police authority, a status that has been tested and established by the courts.

It is not the duty of any police constable to facilitate any individual’s right to protest, but instead to ensure that the law is enforced fairly and impartially, no matter what politicians or anyone else may expect.

It is my belief that our police officers do just that, often in very difficult situations and the Commissioner ought to be supporting their operational independence and not trying to exert control in areas for which he has no remit.

David Haworth Reynolds Drive Over Hulton Bolton