Here we go again. The function of PCSOs is to build relations with the people in their force area and to gain intelligence. Ever watch those fly on the wall documentaries like "Cops with cameras"? How often do you see the Cops sitting down with residents in their area and actually talking to people who suffer from petty crime and Anti Social Behaviour?
The answer is never. Greater Manchester Police now registers an average of 3,000 incidents a day. These can include everything from sounds of gunshots, a body found, or a burglary to lost children, concern for welfare and human remains entering the country.
Although I didn't see it in video of the house where the murdered landscape architect Joanna Yeates from Bristol lived, most cordons at murder scenes, or the recent gas explosion in Eccles in Greater Manchester as an example, are manned by PCSOs. An elderly lady we know who was conned out of £350 by "Rogue Traders" was visited by two Police Officers who spent about 15 minutes with her but were unable to gain much information as the lady is virtually blind.
However, later in the day, two PCSOs visited and spent about 2 hours with her, making tea, nipping to the shops for her and just generally speaking to her and generally providing reassurance. During the early part of the visit the lady said something that her gardener had mentioned in conversation some weeks earlier. Just before the PCSOs were due to leave, she recounted something the con-men had said to her. It became obvious that the phrases were so unusual that coming from two different sources they couldn't be coincidental. This info was passed onto the Officers attached to the case and arrests were made. That was a definite case solved by PCSOs.
At the airport where I work, a PCSO on foot patrol at 4am saw two aircraft cleaners putting bin bags into the boot of a car. He whistled up a vehicle patrol to attend. He couldn't stop the cleaners leaving as they were in a van, but he gave the Cops the details of the car the bags were put in, the van they drove off in, the two men and also told them where the men would be. After less than five minutes the Bobbies were back with the two males and in the car they found two "Gash" bags containing several bottles of alcohol which had been stolen from an aircraft that had brought a football team back from a European match. They were then arrested. They have since been convicted in court of theft.
What irritated the PCSO was that not only did the Officers' report contain no mention of his role, but simply stated that, acting on information received, they carried out an extensive area search and eventually found the males. It was only after the intervention of the PCSOs Community Beat Manager that he received any recognition at all, being sent a Good Work Minute by the Superintendant. Even then, to add insult to injury, it was sent to the wrong PCSO who knew nothing of the case at all.
Another saw a man walking down a high street carrying a firearm under his coat. He radioed in the information and followed the male, despite wearing a hi-vis coat and being told by his Comms. to keep well away. He kept him in site and radioed constant updates until an Armed Response unit arrived.
A few months a TPCSO recognised a car parked oustide a block of flats as belonging to a man wanted for numeous counts of rape and sexual assault, including on females under the age of 14. He kept it under observation until a patrol arrived and arrested the man.
One of the lads at the airport spotted a £1,500 mountain bike reported as being stolen two months earlier. The rider was arrested, convicted of theft and the bike returned to a very grateful owner as it wasn't insured.
There in lies the problem. Police Officers and the Police Federation are very precious of their powers and as such denigrate efforts by anyone who could do parts of their job. It was the same when Highways Agency Traffic Officers were introduced. The job the HA TOs were doing was to take away the need for highly trained Police Officers to put out cones and help move vehciles that have broken down or been involved in minor collisions. They also shield broken down vehicles from other traffic and provide reassurance for those in those vehicles.
So the question is, do you want to pay up to £35,000 p.a. to have a PC put out cones at an RTC? What about standing around for hours on end maintaing a cordon? Do Police Officers have the time to spend two hours with an elderly lady?
In certain areas with a high crime problem, the PCSOs can make friends with the locals and even some of the scroats, while still gaining intelligence which would be passed onto Beat Officers or CID. They also often arrange activities for feckless bored youths that keep them out of mischief. A lot of their patrolling is based around disrupting the activities of kids as they form into gangs and groups, and Stop/Accounting them provides an easily found and read record of their movements which show a pattern and can be cross referenced to see if they show that a certain person has been close to crimes.
Don't forget that when papers such as the Mail or the Express print stories like this, the reader is given no idea as to the context of the figures or the criteria on which they are based. Do they take the total number of detections and then divide it by the total number of Cops in a force? Do they take into account the Officers who are at senior level and yet have got there simply by serving a few months in as many different departments as possible. I know a 32 year old Chief Inspector who joined the Force with a degree and after spending around 7 months on Section, spent time in almost every department he could. He only arrested 3 people during his time on the street and two of them never got to court.
Is that the kind of Police Officer you want? Around £60K per year and hasn't lifted anyone for over 10 years, but he's served in race hate, sex crime, football violence, forced marriage, street robbery, burglary and distraction burglary units. He's still only secured a conviction of one person yet you could have two or three PCSOs for that money.
