Our Police Service appears to have an appalling propensity to complicate relatively simple matters under the guise of being scrupulous whilst at the same time patronising the public, the Cromer incident being the most recent example.

It is normal police practice to appoint duty officers who take responsibility for briefing each shift they take over and then allocating beats to be patrolled by each member of that shift.

If a patrolling officer encounters any serious incident such as a death or bomb scare or complaint the duty officer is automatically requested to attend the scene and deal with it.

MORE: Cromer violence: New report shines a light on police failures and suggests sweeping improvementsIf that duty officer considers the situation to justify advice from somebody above his pay grade he contacts by phone the superior officer on call that day who should deal accordingly.

The public are entitled to a step by step explanation of what transpired to be a serious breakdown in law and order in Cromer, starting with the name and rank of the officer in charge of policing at the time and who he or she contacted after finding the situation was getting out of control.

To find no single officer to be at fault is self-delusive and does no favours to police or public.