Contract

It is one of the safest ways to identify someone. Wait for them outside their home. Wait for them to come back alone. Then say their name. When they turn around, you can shoot them. You are already on a West London street, so just find the nearest tube and get to Heathrow. And hope there are no delays.

Almost immediately after the TV celebrity Jill Dando was shot, even the police were assuming it was a professional hit. Some think it was a Serb terrorist, others that her job presenting Crimewatch may have annoyed the criminal underworld.

Contract killings on working Londoners are probably not that infrequent. Even the plainest of people try to take financial short cuts, and believe urban anonymity can save them from retribution. The police surely can't relish opening such a can of worms. Hiding in the deadly assaults on ordinary members of the public each year will be a few of these cases.

Seeing Barry George released this weekend was a sickening reminder of how happy the media played along with the fantasy that an intellectually challenged social misfit could suddenly make the transition to stealth assassin. But the police had found the perfect loner to stitch up. Who cared if this loser did some time?

The attitude towards this form of "community policing" has changed since the arrest eight years ago. Putting weirdos behind bars is no longer seen as a quick win, given the amount of violent knife offenders at large (and given prison overcrowding). And of course, there is a War on Terror to be fought. The apparent vagueness as to whether an armed unit had been rifling through Barry's apartment or not - and contaminating the forensic evidence - now looks deeply unprofessional with CSI on TV most week nights.

The pressure applied by sections of the media to find the defiler of the pure Ms Dando certainly led to the police becoming snow blind, as Barry's barrister has suggested. And failing under media pressure is one thing several parts of the British establishment do a little too regularly.

Oh, and naturally no apology is forthcoming from the men in blue.