A Mail on Sunday opinion piece argues that police should help preserve public freedoms instead of limiting them, framing this as a central requirement of a free society. The column says citizens are entitled to the kind of police force they want.

The piece invokes the concept of “policing by consent,” presenting it as the principle that underpins how policing should operate. It does not lay out new reporting or specific incidents in the provided excerpt, but instead uses the general idea of consent between the public and law enforcement as the basis for its argument.

As presented here, the outlet’s angle is explicitly commentary rather than news reporting. Other perspectives are not included in the provided materials, so any disagreement across sources cannot be assessed beyond the fact that this source is an editorial view. The key message is that maintaining trust and consent is portrayed as essential to protecting freedoms.