Antony Barnett, reporter, Dispatches, writes about what he learned while making the film, including the differing opinions about PCSOs, the powers they hold and their day-to-day tasks:
Sarah Wilson, one of several Police Community Support Officer that Dispatches went on patrol with, is a 21-year old former waitress who now walks the beat in Lancashire. Sarah is often out patrolling by herself with few powers. All she can do is call for back up and hope a police officer turns up in time - something she told me she has not yet had to do.
Easy targets
Seven years after their introduction, PCSOs are often pilloried as 'plastic police', criticised for lacking the powers or training to tackle 'real' crime. And, as our film shows, some of the very groups of youths PCSOs might be expected to deal with are the ones most adept at exploiting the support officer's limitations. For them, the fact that PCSOs are part of the police force but without police powers makes them an all too tempting target of abuse.
About PCSOs
Introduced in 2002 by the former Home Secretary David Blunkett, the government wanted to use PCSOs to plug the gap between crime levels – which they believed were falling - and the public's fear of crime which was rising. There are now 16,500 so-called 'Blunkett's bobbies' patrolling our streets representing a quiet revolution in frontline policing. The Home Office has spent almost £1bn on PCSOs since they were introduced and last year gave police forces £320m to fund them - that's £19,500 per PCSO.
A 'flawed experiment'?
Opinion within the police appears to remain divided on how effective PCSOs have been. The Police Federation, that represents rank-and-file police officers, is openly opposed to them. Its chairman Paul McKeever told Dispatches that he regards the PCSO system as a 'flawed experiment' which has conned the public into thinking they have more police patrolling the streets. The Federation, perhaps not surprisingly, would like to see the resources being used to employ more fully-warranted police constables. The Federation claims that instead of 16,500 PCSOs the country could have more than 11,000 police officers walking the beat instead.
At the moment, chief constables around the country have little choice but to employ PCSOs as the majority of their salary is paid for by a ring-fenced grant awarded by central government. If the chief constables didn't spend this money on PCSOs, they would lose it. Even the Police Federation accepts that it's better for police officers to have some additional support than nothing.
A 'distinct and valuable service'?
Yet supporters of the PCSO system like the Chief Constable of Lancashire, Steve Finnigan, argues that community support officers like Sarah provide a distinct and valuable service to neighbourhoods in Lancashire which he believes has not only been vital to making the public feel safer but in also reducing crime and anti-social behaviour. He believes a PCSO's lack of powers means they engage with their community in a very different way to police officers. This view is echoed by the Association of Chief Police Officers which claims that the combination of PCSOs and police constables has resulted in improved public confidence in policing.
What do the PCSOs think?
Through their trade unions Dispatches asked PCSOs to reply to an online questionnaire. More than 1,000 responded and several serving support officers agreed to talk to us anonymously. The full results can be viewed here >>
Varying powers
Dispatches also found wide variations in PCSOs' powers across the country. Each support officer has a number of standard powers such as being able to confiscate alcohol from underage drinkers, but there are 21 additional powers each chief constable can give their support officers such as the right to issue fines for dog fouling, throwing a firework or spraying graffiti. It means that PCSOs in each force around the country will have a different set of powers - something that many believe adds to the public confusion over their role.
Dispatches found that 21 out of the 43 forces in England and Wales have given their PCSOS the controversial power to detain an individual for 30 minutes if they don't cooperate - but only 13 of these give them the additional power to use reasonable force to achieve it. North Wales is the only force to issue their PCSOs with handcuffs.
Using the Freedom Of Information Act, Dispatches also discovered some other startling differences between how forces use their PCSOs. We asked all 43 police forces how many penalty notices their PCSOs issued in the year 2007/2008. In Cheshire, Staffordshire and Cleveland not one of their PCSOs issued a penalty notice for the entire year. Whereas West Yorkshire, Durham Thames Valley, and Devon and Cornwall PCSOs issued more than 10 each.
Dispatches also asked the 43 forces how many crimes were detected by PCSOs in the same year . Hertfordshire said their PCSOS detected 1089 crimes, Humberside detected 390 and North Wales 127. Yet of the 26 forces who responded the majority said "detecting crimes does not form part of the role of a PCSO".
British Crime Survey figures
The latest figures do provide some evidence that PCSOs have been effective. The public's perception of crime in their local area has gone down by some 8 per cent. On the other hand, the gap between actual crime and the public's perception of crime on a national level has widened to record levels. Also the perception of high-level anti-social behaviour has not fallen at all - indeed when it comes to rowdy or drunken groups in public places it has actually increased.
Antony Barnett, Reporter, Dispatches; September 2009.
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