Letter: In Brief

Sir: Allowing employees of private firms to arrest people for non-payment of fines and so on (report, 24 November) would increase police workload, not decrease it.

If members of the public were arrested by individuals with no training and questionable authority, the number of assault claims (legitimate or not) would rise dramatically. This proposal will probably just generate work for the police and lawyers and end up being hugely expensive to the taxpayer.

ANTHONY MOORMAN

Leeds