Ely sergeant Mark Rabel invited a local family for a tour of the police station after discovering that a child was frightened of the police.

The child's mum, Kirstie, said: "Thank you to Mark for allowing my daughter to come in and be shown around the station and police car yesterday morning.

"She really enjoyed it and hopefully now she won't be so scared of the police. Thank you again."

Sgt Rabel was praised for his actions on social media after a photo of him with the child, her sister and mum was posted on the Facebook page Policing East Cambridgeshire.

One person said on social media: "Well done sergeant Rabel. We miss you in Histon/Impington."

Another person said that they were not so lucky when they saw two police officers in the city.

They said: "We went to Ely and there was a police car parked up opposite Dorothy Perkins.

"My three and five year old were very excited to see two police officers stood in front of their car.

"Neither of them acknowledged my children and just carried on chatting amongst themselves.

"Ended up with two very disappointed kids as despite their efforts to catch the attention of the police officers there was no interaction at all."