It is right of the Divisional Commander of Airedale and North Bradford police, Chief Supt Ian Kennedy, to pledge that he will not tolerate poor behaviour by his officers in the wake of the incident involving the policeman spotted littering in a public place.

We also highlight today another incident, again reported by a member of the public, of poor parking of a police car at Forster Square shopping area.

Police officers uphold the law and do a very good job of it. But they are not above the law.

Exceptions must be made, of course, for officers responding to emergency calls and carrying out urgent police business and no reasonable person could argue with that.

But when the rules that apply to the rest of us are flouted in situations that cannot be said to be in the line of duty, then it is vital that police officers are seen to respect the law which they are employed to enforce.

We are expected to respect police officers in the course of their duty and for them to earn that respect they must behave at the very least in the same way as law-abiding members of the public who would, quite rightly, be taken to task for littering or bad parking.

In fact, the police must conduct themselves in a more seemly fashion than the rest of us – they are, after all, the embodiment of the authority and rule of law which keeps society from crumbling into anarchy.

In his letter to the Telegraph & Argus today, Chief Supt Kennedy asks for people to return their focus to the excellent work done by officers, with which we would agree.

Let us trust there are no further causes for the public to complain.