I refer to your front-page story last Sunday concerning the rights of the police to 'stop and search' without apparent justification.

I suggest that this development is part of a growing mistrust and resentment of dedicated professions across our society.

Teachers, doctors, nurses, police officers and others - all these people have chosen their professions because of an innate desire to serve or help others; and all, without exception, are suffering from a considerable drop in public esteem.

While those who have suffered abuses deserve to be heard and to have their complaints investigated, I would like to put things in greater perspective.

This drop in public esteem can be explained in several ways. The misdemeanours of one individual (or even a single case) are enough to give an entire profession a bad name, and more so when fuelled by hostile media attention.

There are cases where citizens disagree with how and why a service is provided, while in others some believe that they know what goes on in the minds of others as they seek to make complex decisions based on experience.

Thus, teachers are being increasingly bullied by students and parents, and cameras may be installed in the future to give parents more control over what happens in the classroom.

Healthcare professionals sometimes face hostile patients and are tried and found guilty although they do their best to act in patients' best interest. And the police may soon be told who they can and cannot stop and search when they are trying uphold law and order.

I do not think complaints are the cause of this problem - they are the solution. Feedback is necessary to improve services and to ensure that anyone who is not living up to the standards of his or her profession is made to toe the line. Trust can be rebuilt if complaints are dealt with in a way that is transparent and consistent.

What is particularly worrying is when society (represented by the government or by Parliament), takes it upon itself to control dedicated individuals so as to be seen to act to avoid complaints.

Members of the dedicated professions are being required to prove their dedication by 'shutting up' in the face of growing public discontent provoked by the failures of Western society. I fear the ultimate outcome may be as sad as those misfortunes that lead us to these crossroads.

As people, now called to serve, find their freedom of action increasingly hampered by legislation and public suspicion, they may become more and more defensive. Those who once chose their work willingly may stop acting from the heart altogether, and our serving professions will be driven mechanically and 'by the book', more preoccupied with avoiding trouble than with serving.

It may be the beginning of the end of dedicated professions as we know them.