Arriving here, with picturesque places like Welshpool and Newtown, it’s hard to believe this is a hotbed of crime, but Sergeant Paul Herdman, my companion for the next couple of days, tells me they are “fighting towns” – and we’re likely to see some action.

There’s plenty of time in the afternoon to talk with officers, community support officers and Paul’s family. We even watch his daughter rehearse at a Welsh speaking school for Eisteddfod as he’ll be working when the festival is on.

Attending the afternoon briefing, I get a reminder that every day these officers take big risks on our behalf – some of the people that they are looking for on the night patrol have been extremely violent in the past.

We hit the road - and things hot up.

Three young men arrested for drugs in Newtown (possession of cannabis, speed and ecstasy) are swiftly cautioned and sent on their way.

We set out to find a local drug dealer, but are soon diverted to Welshpool to deal with yobs on a train.

Then we spot a well known local hard man heading in the opposite direction and turn and give chase, successfully. His car is untaxed and he is breaking the speed limit. While he looks fairly harmless, on a previous occasion it’s alleged that he punished a grass by using a red hot poker to brand the letter T on their forehead.

By the time we clock off the cells (all 3 of them) are pretty much full, officers are wrestling with an aggressive drunk and the custody sergeant has been rushed off his feet.

There is an incredible contrast between the power of the latest technology on the one hand and the crumbling infrastructure on the other.

The unmarked car with automatic number plate recognition, which we spend some time in, is incredibly impressive. And so often it is untaxed, unlicensed cars that are used for other crimes and this machine identifies them within seconds.

But the strongest impressions are these.

First, it really is a thin blue line. You can call for back up, but it might not arrive for hours. There are cells in Newtown, but no longer in Welshpool. If the only three cells in this vast area are nearly full by 10pm on a Wednesday night, what happens on a Friday night after the pubs have closed? The fact is that officers drive for often more than an hour each way, to Brecon or Aberystwyth, just to process an arrest.

Second, the paperwork, targets and auditing are every bit as bad as they say. Some of it is so appalling it’s almost comic. Every so often to audit performance, officers are made to use a large clunking Psion for a fortnight at a time to record what they actually do. When these tests take place they have to make entries in to the Psion every 15 minutes that they are on duty. One officer told me of his frustration of spending hour after hour doing paperwork, but breaking off every 15 minutes to plug in the word “paperwork” to the wretched Psion.

Third, the expression “the death of discretion” is not an overstatement.

For example, taking all responsibility for charging away from the Police and giving it to the CPS, means that Police officers often wait around for hours to decide what to do with a relatively minor offence. If they ring the new service “CPS Direct” they can get advice, but it can mean waiting on the phone for three hours.

Whether it is hearing about the fact that the local management team have virtually no control over their £13m budget, or listening to officers complain that detection targets mean that they arrest people they would normally just tick off and send on their way (including one teenager who stole an apple – yes that’s right, one apple), you are left with a clear impression.

We train these people, ask them to do some pretty tough things – and then utterly fail to trust them. That’s not a reason to back pedal on Police reform, which I have argued is deeply necessary. There is a problem with a few officers who, as one said to me today can “swing the lead and work the system”, but the Government’s approach of endless top down instruction is not right. It is more local management and accountability that’s badly needed.