WE all want police officers to spend the greatest possible proportion of their working time actually chasing and catching criminals.

The pressure on them to do this has seen the employment of more and more civilians within police stations to carry out administrative tasks that don't involve apprehending wrongdoers.

Other duties like seeking out parking offenders are being removed from police hands altogether and passed to local authorities.

As their caseloads increase it is perhaps inevitable that some officers will find it difficult to keep victims up to date with progress in catching culprits.

But that's a shame because victims have a right to know what is happening in their case and not just to find out by reading a court report.

Now Lancashire's Chief Constable has launched a scheme to recruit volunteers to do this vital liaison work after seeing something similar in California.

Victim Support Lancashire say one of the most frequent complaints they get is that victims "are not kept informed about what is happening."

A surprising 130 people have already expressed interest in such volunteering - a great possible starting point for the venture.

Now they must be properly trained and treated with the respect that such a vital role demands if they are to be successful and encourage others to join them.