On the same afternoon the Astec paint factory nearby my St Marys home erupted in a fireball. When I drove past the scene four hours later I again found a handful of police patrols had closed off the area with constables keeping curious onlookers at bay.

Perhaps there is something that I'm not seeing here, but it seems to me that in a state with a seriously depleted police force, valuable officer's time is being unnecessarily taken up performing tasks that well-trained security guards could do.

In the instance of the road death, I can predict in advance what the Police Department's response to that suggestion is likely to be. They will reply that they are totally committed to reducing road trauma, that many people are being killed and injured on the roads while few people are killed or injured in minor crimes. Senior police have made statements to that effect in the past.

That still doesn't explain why police are performing guard duty. The well-seeming logic dodges a point of major concern to decent-living citizens. When a crime is committed, unless it falls into a range of boutique crimes with huge media appeal, the police are nowhere in sight.

How is the public supposed to have faith in law and order when they cannot rely on our police department and court system to defend us against wrong-doers? How long will law and order last when the public generally lose faith in it?