T HE symptoms start with the rubbing of the eyes, followed by the feeling of disbelief and gasps of astonishment, sufferers then appear to think that they have become delusional and are seeing things.

A severe case of hayfever or even swine flu?

No, theses symptoms are, if you listen to some members of our community, experienced by the sight of their local police officer walking around their respective beat.

If I had £1 for every time someone has said to me:

"You never see one when you want one" or documented the utter amazement shown on their faces when we are out and about walking around, then I would be as rich as our chief constable.

It may astonish some people that, contrary to belief, there is not an officer at the station who prefers the comfort and warmth of the station office more than being out and about and doing the job.

Having to be inside the office is a frustration to us as well as our local residents who would rather see us out and about.

But the nature of the job and our roles mean that we are bound to spend some of our day at our desks in the office.

A typical day normally starts with the beat managers attending a briefing.

This is an opportunity to keep abreast of the latest intelligence which has come in over the last few shifts, and may involve observations for known criminals and their vehicles, or address lower level community issues.

Following that, it's back to our desks to check internal and external emails that may of come into us while we have been off duty.

In any given 24-hour period, this can be up to and over 30 emails which need to be read.

Some will be instantly deleted as not relevant to either myself or my beat, while others require a response and, in some cases, will require me putting pen to paper.

It is then on to the telephones and checking for any voicemail messages that have been left for me while I have been away.

Again most of these require a return call, and, in every case, we document the calls and our response.

Finally, we check the call logs to see if there are any outstanding calls from the public to our police control room which have been allocated for us to attend.

These are normally the lower level type of calls which do not require an instant police response, but will always require another telephone call or home visit.

It is then that we look to go out and about on to our respective beats where we can be visibly seen by members of our community and do "real police work".

There are moves afoot to reduce the amount of time officers spend in the station and the introduction of new technology will allow us to complete all of the office chores while out on the street, and this will benefit everyone.

But until that time, it's our police community support officers who are fast becoming the visible side of the police service.

I accept that there is a degree of security in seeing a police officer walking down the street.

This instils confidence to residents in the area where they live, but the fact that you don't see us doesn't mean we're not there.

And if you want me to acknowledge my presence every time I am in your street by knocking on your door, then that's OK with me.

But it could be at 6pm or 2am so do not say that you have not been warned.