Brian Parker, of Victoria Road, Dartmouth, writes:

Listen to the words of the police spokesman, Chronicle, September 30, you law-abiding citizens of Dartmouth and be nervous: 'We are going to be hitting Dartmouth quite hard over the next few months.  There will be zero tolerance.  It will not be warning and education.  It will be tickets, points, fines and prosecutions.'  

We are also told that the crackdown will include roadside operations targeting car owners who drive without tax or insurance or who are committing seat belt and other traffic offences.

'And other traffic offences' are the words to be nervous about.  

I am sure we applaud a crackdown on activities in which the miscreants are fully aware that they are breaking the law:  no tax, no insurance, using a mobile phone while driving or charging up College Way at 50mph.  

But it is the smaller and out-of-the-blue transgressions associated with owning a car that concern me: a failed rear light; a slow puncture; a number plate unknowingly not exactly in accordance with the DVLA regulations.  

If you think these points are trivia that the police will sensibly note and advise upon, think again.  

Look back to February 2008, when officers went round Dartmouth at 1.45am measuring number plates and handing out penalty tickets where the gaps between the alphanumeric groups were just a few centimetres out of specification.

That occasion was a public relations disaster for the police.  

I get the impression from the tone of the current police statements that they are quite likely to make the same mistake again.  

The language is that of Robocop about to descend on a lawless town.  

This is not the New York Bronx or Bristol's St Paul's, it is Dartmouth.  

What we want is a measured and common-sense response commensurate with the offence.  

By all means crack down on significant criminal activity but, for trivial matters, deliver advice, not ticketing.  

We certainly do not want to foster a situation in which the good citizens of Dartmouth encounter a policeman and are nervous.