The hacking inquiry is too heavy-handed There are some countries where dawn raids by the police on the homes of journalists and the arrest of two dozen newspaper reporters and executives would be seen as a serious abuse of state power. That it is happening here is a sad indictment of the inexcusable activity that underpinned the story-gathering of two News International titles, the News of the World (now closed) and The Sun. Breaking into mobile phone messages, hacking computers and paying public servants for information are illegal and should be investigated. But there is a question of proportionality to consider; and in this, the Metropolitan Police has arguably overstepped the mark. Perhaps Scotland Yard's heavy-handed approach is understandable in view of the criticism from politicians and some in the media for its failure to continue the hacking inquiry after the imprisonment of the News of the World's royal correspondent and a private investigator in 2006. In hindsight, the Met should have kept a small team working on the investigation; certainly, the consequences of not doing so have been serious for the force. It resulted in the resignation of a commissioner and one of his deputies and invited damaging accusations that the police suppressed further inquiries because of their alleged links with News International. But while the police may dislike being castigated for previous inaction, that grievance does not warrant tipping the balance too far the other way. By some accounts there are now close to 200 officers working on three separate inquiries linked to the phone hacking affair. More officers are being sent to arrest a single journalist for an action that may or may not be a crime than ever turn up to investigate a murder or a burglary. This risks creating a culture of trepidation and excessive caution among newspapers that is not healthy in a democratic society but suits those who would like to neutralise the press. The police will say they are damned either way; but two wrong approaches do not make a right one. In addition, police budgets and manpower are under pressure at a time when the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics offer targets to terrorists. Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Met commissioner, who owes his job to the fall-out from this affair - and Boris Johnson, the London mayor - who on the page opposite rightly laments the excessive cost of the Abu Qatada saga - need to consider whether this is a sensible use of scarce resources. These inquiries should be drawn to a conclusion as speedily as possible. Open-ended investigations of alleged media misconduct would be intolerable in a free and democratic society.