(P)CSO’s: 4.9 or the full 5ive-o

28Mar08

No Police Officer blog would be complete without an entry about (P)CSO’s. I have nothing against the role performed by CSO’s but I feel the public should be able to easily distinguish between a Police Officer and CSO when they see one in the street and that the public should know roughly what powers each role can perform to avoid any confusion. The Home Office and Unison seem to be trying to fudge the line between the two roles. There are 3 types of CSO’s in the Westshire Constabulary. They are as follows:

• The ex-Traffic Wardens: There aren’t many of these left now. About 3 years ago the existing Traffic Wardens were given the choice to be automatically changed into a CSO, be redeployed into another Police Staff role or take early retirement if they were old enough. The role of a TW was quite cushy, you go out plodding the streets giving out "slap & dashes". Nothing too taxing and if you were good at avoiding getting caught by the motorist then not much public contact. Most of these "original" CSO’s are getting past it now and couldn’t care less about Neighbourhood Policing.
• The PC wannabees: These are usually young males in their early 20’s who really want to be a policeman, have probably applied but failed the assessment centre or did not even get through the application form stage so they decide to be a CSO instead. They are the "Yellow Clad Numpties" referred to by the fed a couple of years ago. The simplest task has to be fully explained to them, they cannot work on their own initiative , they have to be talked through word for word to write a duty statement and the youths they are supposed to be sorting out just mock them. They shout up for Police jobs, try to attend confrontational situations for which they have no grasp and they are always putting out assistance calls when they have wound somebody up and then need back up. Bearing in mind that CSO’s do not carry belt equipment other than a ticket pouch and maybe a Mag-Light, these CSO’s have more pouches and belt attachments than the average Pc.
• The Good Ones: These are the CSO’s worth their weight in gold. They are articulate, know what they are taking about, know their powers and can write a statement without any supervision. These are the ones who know their remit and don’t try to more than they have either been trained to deal with or have the power to deal with. They engage well with all members of the community from old Mrs Miggins to young Jonny Scrotebag. The groups of youths respect them because they know how to treat people the right way. But these CSO’s don’t seem to last long because they inevitably become Pc’s because there is not other career progression within the role of CSO.

Below is an extract from from the Unison response to the NPIA review of PCSO’s:

6 Name

There has been an unwelcome trend in the service in the last few years to call PCSOs by the shortened name of “Community Support Officers”. Our members are very clear that they want to be called “Police Community Support Officers”. It is very important that the full name is clearly and distinctively signed on their uniform, so that the public can readily identify them.

I was on the understanding that when the government launched CSO’s in 2002 they were officially called COMMUNITY SUPPORT OFFICERS in the Police Reform Act 2002 that brought about their inception. The reason for this was because they were not Police Officers and the government did not want the public to be confused between the two roles. That is why CSO marked vehicles in my force do not have to word POLICE on them anywhere but say COMMUNITY SUPPORT and the original CSO uniform said COMMUNITY SUPPORT OFFICER and not POLICE COMMUNITY SUPPORT OFFICER.

It does not appear to be a "trend" to call CSO’s by a shortened name but rather the name has had the word POLICE added in recent times and people still refer to CSO’s by their ORIGINAL name. The word POLICE was omitted for a reason because CSO’s are not Police Officers and the public will be confused as to who is what and I do not know of any change in the legislation that has changed the name to include the word POLICE.

9 Uniform

9.1 UNISON has launched a campaign called “The Right Kit for the Job” to improve and enhance the uniforms won by PCSOs in England and Wales. Copies of the campaign materials are enclosed.

9.2 The current uniforms given to PCSOs by forces vary from very excellent to very poor. The wide variation in style and look of the PCSO uniform is confusing for the general public. Many of our PCSO members report being regularly mistaken for parking attendants or local authority community wardens. This is damaging the PCSO brand and neighbourhood policing in general.

9.3 UNISON is calling on the service to provide a distinctive, practical and smart uniform for their PCSOs, which would be broadly standardised across all forces. This in turn could lead to significant procurement savings if uniforms were ordered nationally.

9.4 The standard PCSO uniform should comprise:

• Individual/force crest on hat/cap and uniform

• Blue and white chequerboard hat/cap band

• Blue tie/epaulettes (if worn)

• Rest of uniform to be standard police issue (e.g. shirt/blouse/zip top/trousers/ boots/ high visibility jackets)

9.5 PCSOs are particularly aggrieved where their force refuses to allow them to wear the force crest. Usually this is in forces where the Chief Constable has bowed to pressure from internal critics of the PCSO role.

The refusal of permission to wear the force crest sends a powerful message of exclusion to staff who need to feel part of the policing team. It is imperative that this marginalisation of PCSOs stops now.

The latest information available to UNISON is that the following forces still refuse to allow their PCSOs to wear the force crest:

• Bedfordshire
• Cleveland
• Derbyshire
• Dorset
• Gloucestershire
• Greater Manchester
• Gwent
• Lincolnshire
• Merseyside
• Met Police
• Northamptonshire
• Northumbria
• South Wales
• Suffolk
• West Midlands
• West Yorkshire

If a definition of bullying is undermining colleagues at work; the refusal of some forces to give their PCSOs the force crest could be seen as institutional bullying of PCSOs. It should stop now.

The new uniform I feel is quite deceiving in that on some of the jackets worn by CSO’s the word POLICE is in very big letters with the words COMMUNITY SUPPORT in very small letters underneath. From a distance only the word POLICE can be read. My force’s CSO uniform is identical to that of a Constable except for the blue band around their hats and their blue tie and epaulettes. This is the only way to quickly distinguish them from a uniformed Constable. On the front of a previous issue of Police Review magazine I saw a photograph of a CSO wearing a chequered hat band and at first I did not realise she was a CSO at all. She looked identical to a Constable apart from the small Community Support badge on her stab vest.

I agree that CSO’s should be given sufficient PPE such as a suitable stab vest and that their uniform should be to the same quality of a uniformed Constable (which is still poor in most forces except North Wales) but I firmly believe that the CSO uniform should be completely different from that of a Constable but that there should be a national uniform that is easily recognisable to the role and set of full standard powers for all CSO’s in England & Wales so that there is no confusion to members of the public.

During the summer months when I am just in my shirt with no tie I have been asked a couple of times and I quote "ARE YOU A REAL POLICE MAN OR ONE OF THOSE COMMUNITY OFFICERS?". The public want to be able to tell the difference quickly and easily.

Filed under: Government, PCSO, Police   |  5 Comments