Investigating Officers – Part 2

James Barlow’s Freedom of Information Requests.

(Note – Britain does not operate Gendarmeries. All UK police officers are civilians, in accordance with Peelian principles. The term civilian is often used to distinguish between sworn officers and support staff, however the theory is still “the police are the public, and the public are the police”)

Previously I’ve discussed the Police Reform Act (2002), and its specification of several categories of civilian police staff that can exercise police powers, in particular the well-known Police Community Support Officers, and the less well-known Investigating Officers.

The City Council’s contribution to policing is around £4 million pounds (over and above what the Constabulary spends). The last time it was mentioned in a Council budget, around £1.2 million of that was the budget to pay for 43 PCSOs.

That money is largely a waste. There is just no evidence that PCSOs do a great deal to deter crime or improve the safety of our streets, particularly since they cannot stop, search or arrest perpetrators. Your average criminal is no genius, but neither is he completely thick; he can recognise the difference between a sworn officer with police powers and a civilian.

[…M]y suggestion – ditch the Community Support Officers, replace them on street patrols with sworn officers who have police powers, and recruit some specialists to do investigative work. And that’ll keep things ticking over until we can carve out a City of Bristol police force and get it under local control.

I put in an FoI request to find out how many Investigating Officers were employed by the Avon & Somerset Constabulary, and the FoI team were very helpful:

[A&S] can confirm that the Constabulary do employ Investigating Officers who are not Police Officers (as described in the Police Reform Act 2002). There are currently 44 Police Staff employed to carry out investigative duties. These fall into a number of distinct roles, being:

• 7918 Major Crime Investigating Officers (MCIOs)
• 7666 Major Crime Support Officers (MCSOs)
• 7719 Financial Investigator (Designated)
• 7713 Financial Investigation Supervisor
• 7710 Financial Investigation Unit Manager
• 7005 Major Crime Support Officer (Designated)
• 7776 Designated Fraud Investigator

There is already a system in place to employ Investigating Officers. So let’s get a few more of them, and free up some sworn officers for street patrols.