An opinion poll published in the Daily Telegraph newspaper suggests that the British public's satisfaction with the police has fallen sharply.

Less than sixty per cent of those questioned said they were very or quite satisfied with the way the police did their job, compared with seventy-four per cent ten years ago.

One third believed that the police treated black and Asian people worse than white people The survey, conducted by the Gallup organisation, comes at a time of intense scrutiny of the police for its handling of the death of the black teenager, Stephen Lawrence, which led to accusations of racism in the force.