I was in the police from early 2004 until end of 2016.

Things were significantly and statistically worse back then, including violence. The kids especially were fucking feral.

I worked in a predominantly rural area and in 2004/2005 our station was firebombed twice, police officers were regularly assaulted and we would have to attend incidents as a three because we needed someone to look after the vehicle whilst dealing with a job.

It wasn’t a friday night if we weren’t having bottles chucked at us from alleyways, and youth drunkeness and antisocial behaviour was rife.

Over the years we managed to get a grip on it. Council evicted a lot of the troublesome families and we locked up the rest. By the time I left, the job was almost boring.