NEWS COMMENT: A pat on the back for our boys (and girls) in blueÂ

Of course there are '˜those out there' who dislike the police for many a reason but how many of them would often go beyond the call of duty to aid people in a crisis?

Take for example award-winner  Jamie Christian, who was handed a '˜Chief Constable congratulations' accolade.

The investigator was on his way to work at Fratton police station, in Kingston Crescent, Portsmouth, when a woman fell from a motorway bridge.

She tragically died in the incident but police staff investigator Jamie, just 26, was described as '˜phenomenal' in how he dealt with the situation after seeing the woman fall.

Cosham officer PC Malcolm Long thought of nothing when he plunged his finger into an open wound on a stabbing victim's neck.

The injured man had been found in Woodland Street, Portsmouth, on October 14 in 2016.

'˜The loss of blood had been so great that had he lost any more, he would have died,' a police spokeswoman said.

Malcolm received a Royal Humane Society Certificate of Commendation at the ceremony attended by Chief Constable Olivia Pinkney and the Vice Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire, Rear Admiral Iain Henderson.

And don't forget that some low-lives see the officer on the beat as an easy target.

How many times across the country do we hear of police being spat at, punched and kicked ? Far too many and the perpetrators ought to consider themselves very lucky they don't reside in a country where every policeman or woman is armed. 

It's good to see recognition for '˜the old bill' but fingers have to be crossed that the Thin Blue Line does not get any thinner.