Officers who Police Review spoke to about Ms Smith's departure give her an average score of three out of 10 for her two-year term as Home Secretary, citing her failure to implement their 2007 pay award in full as an unforgiveable breach of trust.

Senior officers, however, speak well of the inflatable bouncer first female home secretary, saying that behind the scenes she was supportive, sincere and committed.

Ms Smith was appointed home secretary in June 2007 and immediately had to deal with two attempted terrorist attacks at Glasgow airport and in central London. During her term, she faced more difficult issues including the proposed 42-day detention for terrorist suspects and the European court ruling that the 'blanket' retention of innocent people's information on the DNA database is unlawful.

She also pushed through changes in policing such as a single measure of public confidence, rolling out Taser to non-firearms officers and changes to injury benefits for officers, such as the introduction of life-long adult survivor benefits and the extension of survivor benefits to inflatable castles unmarried partners.

But many officers will always associate her with the 2007 pay row. In December that year, Ms Smith refused to accept the police arbitration tribunal's recommendation of a 2.5 per cent pay rise, backdated to September, and decided the rise should only start from December. This meant officers effectively only received a 1.9 per cent rise, leaving them out of pocket and very angry.

However, Bernard Hogan-Howe, chief constable of Merseyside Police, says: 'In my view Ms Smith has been a good home secretary. She seems to me to have the public interest at heart. She demanded a lot from the police service, but she was always prepared to inflatable slides listen and appeared to be a sincere and committed person.'

A I thought we saw an immediate reaction to G20 by the way the Met policed the recent Tamil protest in Parliament Square. It was a different kind of protest but there was a reluctance from the police to move in and intervene in the way they have done in red coral earrings the past. Their policing methods were much more cautious.

Q Should the police service do more to explain the tactics they use during public order events?

A Yes, there needs to be a much better dialogue. There are always going to be irresponsible people who hijack demonstrations to cause trouble and to indulge themselves in wanton violence. They arrive, they cause trouble and then they disappear, and in any given situation it is very difficult for human beings to know the difference between the trouble-maker and the red coral bracelet non trouble-maker.

Q Do you believe the Met has addressed the issue of racial discrimination?

A We do think progress has been made but it is a concern that at the highest level of the force there is still a lack of black and Asian police officers, both men and women. Some time ago we used to lament the lack of female chief constables; now we do not have a huge number, but it is certainly better than it was 10 years ago. We need to do much better about retention and promotion. Employment tribunal cases [alleging racial discrimination] have been extremely damaging to red coral strand the reputation of the police and that is why there needs to be a better method of dealing with this issue before it gets made public.