Ben. Thread 21 of yours,I would sooner work with ONE volunteer Special because he does it for the love of the job, (Unpaid) than half a dozen PCSOs who look upon it just as a job, and from what I have seen and heard from my old fellow, but still serving Officers, don’t give a damn.

Different forces mate. All of the PCSO’s I deal with daily are damn good at their job and only too happy to help. Doing my job you get to know all of the shift groups and pcso’s for an area. I cant think of a single PCSO off the top of my head who’s a pain or likes to hide/doesnt give a damn.

Serving regulars on the other hand :rolleyes:

Your far too young to remember, when a house was burgled a SOCO was sent within a couple of hrs, unless something like a murder, suicide etc took preference.

Splitting this up for a good reason :nod: Large part of the problem is that SOCO is now (in my force) mostly civvy run and there are SO few of them. TVP Is all of Oxfordshire/Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. Big area to cover for a (relatively) Small part of the force. In credit to them they wazz all over the place like mad bee’s when they’re out and about

With regards to attendance – Major crime IE – Murder/serious assault/high value burglary etc will either be attended asap OR Depending upon time of night etc will be reviewed for callout by the control room Inspector.

SOCO in our force will attend a normal house burglary straight away if they’re free (which is rare) but id like to say that again in my experience, most jobs that soco is required for will be attended within 6-10 hours (stretching to 24 hours for lesser crimes where its suitable and the correct advice has been passed to the aggrieved ref preservation of evidence)

Today, when a crime is reported, all you get is a Crime Number. Even a PC wont pay you a visit, not a great confidence booster for Public Morale.
Jim.

Lincoln .7

Not true, it is ENTIRELY Based upon the type of crime being reported – 95% of crime in progress will be Blues

Unwitnessed crime is mostly non attendance – EG “someone stole my bike overnight, no cctv and it wasnt locked up happened approx 6 hours ago now between 2100-0700”

Why would you send a police officer to attend that, granted its a crime but what leads are there for that bike? What evidence is there to be gathered? Relatively low value etc

unwitnessed TOMV 6 hours ago, similar (provided no one has broken into your house to steal keys for it) Marker on PNC, crime number for insurance – What else is there to do? Once the marker is on pnc it’ll ping ANPR all over the country but theres not much else that can be done.

Timescale however is everything – Unwitnessed theft in the last 15/20 minutes changes everything – high probability that the offdr is still in the area. So on so forth. but even then, area search will be done, crime report done with the aggvd, officer will complete the crime report via phone to the PEC etc.

The reality is that police just dont have the numbers to attend every single crime that happens.

Have to draw the line somewhere.

Lincoln_7?

AFAIK The powers of each forces PCSO’s are granted by said forces C/Constable.

Within my job role – I find pcso’s immensely useful and willing to assist.

Pcso’s can deal with things like “oooh that mrs johnson has cut my side of the rosebush” to “these bloody parents park on the wrong side of the road every day at the end of school”

All of those smaller neighbourhood problems that need mediation but not nessecarily that of a police officer. Its extremely handy having a PCSO or 4 to hand.

They are essentially uniformed Civvies with some traffic warden powers (force dependant)

(~45% of my colleagues in control room are Special Constables)

Special Constable – Again very useful, as they are police officers. they can attend and deal with most jobs a normal police officer would however those in our force dont recieve “Immediate” training, that is to say a special constable cannot drive himself/herself to a job with illuminated blues (obv with another police officer driving they can)

Both types of resource are excellent tools to help bolster numbers accross the area/shift.

I disagree with some forces wanting a 1:1 ratio of specials and regular police officers.

As much as they are an excellent tool, its rare that a special will do all of the followup investigations into any crimes that they dealt with (due to having their own jobs) this falls down to fulltime paid police officers/staff

IMO – Single biggest problem with the running of the police force is that its done like a business – The people that call on the 9’s are “Customers” :rolleyes:

I disagree with this ethos. This has allowed the general public to be come dependant on the police to solve the pettiest of issues! where before it would have been “Now come on, grow up and sort it out like big boys and girls”

It is now

“ok then sir/maam I shall pass the problem concerning your neighbour and continuous antisocial behaviour that you recieve from them to control room for resourcing”

(some cases the above is just but for 99% id say not)

The upshot of the above is the NEED for PCSO’s – where police wouldnt have dealt with it at all, the govt say you have to and as a result pcso’s are bought into the world.

Imo anyway (just woken up from a night shift so if it doesnt make sense, you know what to do :diablo: )

Its obviously not the practical aspect, its the nerves.

I thought I had failed my test about 5 minutes in, I stalled coming out of a junction, thinking id failed I just drove as my instructor had taught me. Lo and behold got to the end and parked up and she said “well done, you’ve passed”

Thinking Id failed, I calmed down massively lol!

Do you have a lesson before you take your test?

Book the first/earliest test possible on a monday morning 🙂

who’s the hairdresser?! :confused: 🙁

Blue, I know I dont drink neat alcohol, but I dont drink shandy. Proper Beer, not this namby pamby lager everyone talks about.

Who’s Jim? :confused:

I always figured, you, and the other two orrible northern terrors (blue and richw)

I live the other side of the country about 30 miles west of coventry 😉

There be dragons down there mate!