avon

An item from the Avon & Somerset Freedom of Information archive:

Please disclose whether your force has in the last two years deployed cardboard cut-outs of police officers or other civilian staff such as PCSOs?

[In the last two years, we] have deployed five life-size images of beat managers cost a total of £370, exclusive of VAT, as this was recovered.

How many of the cut-outs have been (a) stolen or (b) criminally damaged?

To date one image has been stolen on two occasions, being recovered after the first offence but remains outstanding after the subsequent offence.

If you encounter a cardboard police officer, please contact A&S.

Back in the fifties, the British Police got a bit fed up with dealing with motor cars, so the post of Traffic Warden was created to do the tedious business of wandering about giving tickets and keeping traffic moving. The Traffic Wardens – there are still some about – have Yellow-banded caps, and are not to be confused with local authority employed Civil Enforcement Officers who wear red-banded caps. The latter were introduced when the Police decided that even running Traffic Wardens was a major pain in the behind, and de facto lobbied for decriminalisation of many parking offences by virtue of not enforcing the law.

A few years ago, the Police also realised that much of the grunt work of walking about the place being visible, issuing criminal penalties and talking to the public was also a major pain in the behind. Furthermore, the government of the day (prop. A. Blair) noticed that Police Constables were actually quite expensive, what with all the training and the final-salary pension.

So via the Police Reform Act 2002, Britons were introduced to Police Community Support Officers. Now I’ve met quite a few PCSOs – in my professional capacity, not theirs – and they are a great bunch. Enthusiastic, willing to get stuck in, and frankly if it weren’t for the money issues they’d probably all be Probationary Constables. (Although there is one member of the team I’ve seen patrolling Cotham Brow in a XXXXL stab vest who could perhaps use a bit of nutritional advice). You’ll recognise them by their blue-banded caps.

PCSOs are less expensive than Police Constables, but oddly that hasn’t resulted in a reduction in Police budgets. In Bristol, it is actually that Local Authority that pays for a good chunk of the PCSOs deployed in the city. The trend throughout this narrative is that you, the taxpayer, tend to get a reduced quality of service, but end up paying more for it. This is not intended as a slight to PCSOs, but given that they have few police powers beyond issuing fixed penalty notices (although see below for nuances) it is a brutal truth that they are not performing anything close to the same role as a constable on beat patrol. Some might say “ah, but they are not intended to replace beat patrols by constables”, to which I reply “yes, pull the other one, it has bells on”.

I’m running for elected office, but in the short-term, there’s not much I can do about my perceptions of the relative expense of policing in Bristol. If there was a Conservative administration here by the end of June 4th (and assuming I was in it), I’d be agitating for the break-up of the Avon & Somerset Constabulary, and the creation of a City of Bristol service force under the command of a Chief Constable appointed by an elected City Mayor. But that’s a big aspiration. So, one wonders whether there are smaller interventions we could have a go at that might make life better for Bristolians.

Here’s my thought:

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. Even the chairman of sort-of-a-Union, the Police Federation, was quoted as saying:

[PCSOs] were performing a passive role, being essentially a public relations move to reassure the public and had never been intended, he said, to take an active role in the fight against crime.

But there is another type of police civilian position that was created in the Police Reform Act 2002, called Investigating Officers. To understand the difference between a Community Support Officer and a Civilian Investigating Officer, let’s run through their powers:

Powers of a Police Community Support Officer:

1. Power to issue fixed penalty notices
2. Power to detain (for 30 minutes)
3. Power to require name and address of person acting in an anti social manner
4. Power to use reasonable force to detain person
5. (Seizure) Alcohol consumption in designated public places
6. Confiscation of alcohol (Young Persons)
7. Confiscation of tobacco etc. (Young Persons)
8. Entry to save life or limb or prevent serious damage to property
9. Seizure of vehicles used to cause alarm etc.
10. Removal of Abandoned vehicles
11. Power to stop vehicle for testing
12. Power to control traffic for purposes of escorting a load of exceptional dimensions
13. Carrying out of road checks
14. Maintain a Cordoned area
15. Power to stop and search vehicles etc. in authorised areas

(This list may surprise you. Is is generally assumed that PCSOs cannot use reasonable force or detain people. In fact, the law provides for these powers, but not all Chief Constables give the relevant training and policy guidance to their staff. And ultimately if a PCSO wishes to detain you, and you scarper within the 30 minute detention period, then the outcome will be at most a £1000 fine).

Powers of a (Civilian) Investigating Officer:

1. Search warrants
2. Access to excluded and special procedure material
3. Entry and search after arrest
4. General power of seizure
5. Access and copying in the case of things seized by constables
6. Arrest at a police station for another offence
7. Power to transfer persons into custody of investigating officers,
8. Power to require arrested person to account for certain matters
9. Extended powers of seizure

These powers are still not full police powers, but they do cover a reasonable amount of the territory required to investigate crimes that have occurred. If we were paying for staff to do this sort of role, we would then free up some Constables to perform street patrols.

Now admittedly, I can’t find any indication that any police force has ever appointed a Civilian Investigating Officer. I suspect it might prove rather unpopular with the ladies and gentlemen of the Criminal Investigation Department who have earned their plain-clothes status by virtue of a few years as a uniformed officer. And no doubt the competition would not got down well with uniformed officers who aspire to plainclothes status.

Well, sorry guys, but tough. I’ve been burgled twice in the last few years, and I want a better quality of service. And that means proper deterrent patrols on the streets, and investigation of crimes committed in a timely fashion.

So that’s my 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.