One of the most basic requirements of a civilised society is that we feel safe. Safe to go about our business. safe to walk the streets. Private property protected - fraud detected and put right. And all of it achieved with a sense that those enforcing the rules - keeping us in order, warning us or arresting us - are doing so with our general consent. That the police come from us and are trusted by us. But something seems to have gone seriously wrong with policing in a wide variety of English constabularies, from the Met in London to rural Gloucestershire and Wiltshire - Cleveland to Greater Manchester. The problems in each force are different but the picture overall is of policing not working and individual officers often not up to the job -- or worse.

Justin Webb speaks to former policing watchdog Zoe Billingham and Labour shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper.