PCSOs do a very worthwhile job in terms of community engagement and feeding back critical information to Safer Neighbourhood Teams, but fact remains they are still not sworn officers, so they are sometimes limited in what they can do in sticky situations.. :-/
I agree they do a worthwhile job -- within their remit. I do, however, question their operational value. A Special, with full powers and decent training is often a better liason twixt community and Police. They generally live in the communities they serve and can get better intel as the local butcher than any "accepted" PCSO, who are often just paid lip service.
I feel the money spent on PCSO's is far better utilised in recruiting Specials or Regulars who can do the full job ( sufficiently trained and resourced of course).
PCSO's are a sort of "inbetween", and could easily get out of their depth with today's "characters", who have scant respect for those who can enforce the law, let alone those who get stuck in the middle without adequate powers or training.
But -- don't mind me -- I am a moaning old git living in the 70's
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Topic: On the subject of Police Officers... (Read 2535 times)