By Finlo Rohrer BBC News Online

David Blunkett's suggestion that local police commanders take a higher profile conjures up images of mavericks taking on the authorities while winning the hearts of their communities.

But maverick commanders - like Brian Paddick in Lambeth and Ray Mallon in Teeside - in the UK have not always fared well in the face of opposition from the established order.

Mr Paddick was moved to a desk job

Mr Paddick is the most recent officer to take on a high profile, respond to concerns in his community and suffer the consequences.

Mr Paddick's experiment on taking a "softly, softly" approach to low-level cannabis offences and shifting resources to tackling more serious crime in Lambeth won him acclaim from many.

The area saw a drop in crime while arrests for more serious drugs offences rose.

But some residents felt Lambeth was suffering and the tabloid response ranged from scepticism to vitriol for Britain's highest-ranking openly gay officer.

Allegations in one newspaper from a former boyfriend that the officer had allowed cannabis to be smoked in his flat, and had even smoked cannabis himself, saw him moved from his job in Lambeth.

Local experiments

He denied the allegations, which were dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service, but was not able to return to his job.

Mr Paddick told BBC News Online he regarded Mr Blunkett's plans as a vindication for himself and hoped officers pursuing local experiments would fare better in the future.

"I obviously wholeheartedly support what the home secretary appears to be proposing. Maybe I was a bit ahead of the game," he said.

It sweetens a bitter pill to see things apparently follow what I was doing in Lambeth Commander Brian Paddick

"I was in a situation where the established order is that you take orders from Scotland Yard."

He said the attitude in days gone by was: "We can't have a local police chief who is more popular than the commissioner."

"Things rarely change unless there is an example or an experiment or a pilot to work from," Mr Paddick argued.

"I would like to think what I did in Lambeth was consistent with what the home secretary has said. Despite what happened to me I would take that as some sort of vindication of the approach I took.

"You should have people who are prominent within the community.

"It sweetens a bitter pill to see things apparently - whether it is on the cannabis issue or on locally accountable police - follow what I was doing in Lambeth."

Cannabis policy

Mr Paddick - who now tackles gun crime and helps train detectives - said Mr Blunkett might be following American ideas, but the important point was that policing would be locally accountable.

"You need local police chiefs that are more accountable to their local people, and by definition more in tune with local people, delivering a police service that meets the needs of local people," he said.

"That was exactly what I set out to do, for example, with cannabis policy trialling."

On Teeside, Ray Mallon has bounced back after being forced out of Cleveland Police.

Ray Mallon has bounced back on Teeside

Mr Mallon rose to fame with his introduction of US-style zero tolerance policing, earning the nickname "Robocop" for his uncompromising style as a detective superintendent in Middlesbrough.

He won friends among senior politicians, including Tony Blair, and oversaw dramatic drops in crime.

But his radical tactics and very public persona alienated many fellow senior officers.

In September 1997, he was suspended from duty along with 58 other officers following allegations of misconduct.

He has always vehemently denied any wrongdoing, but after a four-year investigation costing �7m he admitted to 14 disciplinary charges last February in order to start a career in politics.

A landslide victory in May last year saw him take office as Middlesbrough's first directly elected mayor and he has already announced big drops in crime.

Some of his success is down to computer mapping of where crimes are taking place, as well as a team of 40 street wardens, Mr Mallon has suggested.

They are just the sort of locally-tailored tactics that Mr Blunkett favours.

But Mr Mallon's continued popularity combined with Mr Blunkett's comments could provide a worrying thought for old-fashioned officers across the land.