why do we need community wardens?

Question

to me it seems as if the law enforcement policies in the uk are going over the top, why do we have civilians in uniform patrolling our streets when it should be the police which is their job, and they are paid.
we need the police to get out of their fancy cars and back on the streets because a visible prescence is far more effective than cameras that do not work,and civilians who think they are cops walking the streets are a recipe for disaster, how long before someone is killed, train these people to be police instead of giving them a uniform and sending them out to enforce laws the know nothing about

Answer 1

Little Hitlers some of them...........

Answer 2

If it seems this way to you, it is because you do not know anything about policing and crime issues. It is a well documented and proven fact that a visible police presence on the streets does not significantly affect crime rate - it's fairly obvious that if the local bobby is on street A, Billy Burglar knows that street B is unguarded.

Street Wardens are just a government cop-out (excuse the pun). Wardens cost considerably less than police officers in terms of wages and training, but give the public Daily Mail readers a visible police presence which makes them feel safer in a Dixon of Dock Green sort of way.

The real problem is that the prisons are full and his Toniness, like his Tory predecessors, considers the purchase of missiles to "police" places like Iraq more important than building more prisons in his own back yard. Consequently less people go to prison, more prisoners are released early, the courts cannot deal with new offences and the police are disempowered to deal with crime on the street level. That's an over-simplification of the matter, but the truth in a nutshell.

Oh, and trust me - there's nothing fancy about your average police car. Funding issues and health and safety stupidity means your average squad car has no hope of outgunning the average 15 year old Golf GTi, let alone a serious criminal's vehicle! Your local officers will be lucky if they get a 1.8 in the Ford Focus/ Vauxhall Astra!!!

Answer 3

the sad fact is paul-the police simply are not up to the job anymore-crime is spiralling out of control-we have gangs of thugs terrorising estates vandalising property and all the police say when called "we will send someone when we can"-which will usually be two hours later. so the answer is (or so we are led to beleive) community wardens-fine but the problem here is many are seen as just a joke. people who lack the intellect to be a "real copper" so they get the urine extracted from them in a big way. when the government realise that all the general public wants to do is protect our loved ones and property without fear of prosecution then life would get a whole lot quieter-put it this way mate-if you were a thug-would you be prepared to break into my house knowing i can hit you with a bat and the law won't bat (excuse the pun) an eyelid?? would you damage my car if the law says i can (within reason) give you a bloody good hiding for it??-of course you wouldn't. but as it is with this softie government the thugs will continue to run riot-and the community wardens will be able to do precious little about it. and i wouldn't hurt to re-open the borstals neither. no playstations or gourmet meals-give them some boot camp-make sure they never want to go back again-and the only way that will happen is to stay out of trouble.

Answer 4

We had community wardens once and it was great.However they weren't with us long and trying to get police to act is nigh impossible. What I would like to see are more free activity centres for teens. They wander round aimlessly thinking the world is against them and in some ways they are right. I'd hate to be a teenager in current times.I experienced the attitude they have to live with day and daily and was shocked at the way they are spoken to by age groups who should know better.In an ideal world training would help but if only some form of entertainment was available then we wouldn't need wardens !

Answer 5

Our street wardens are an essential item where we live, we live in a rural area and have 2 police officers to cover 40 miles they are based 20 miles away from where we are so, if you have trouble you have no chance.
They keep an eye on people fly tipping and the younger element of the dale getting bored and wrecking things.
I work in a community office and they visit on a regular basis and without them we would be worse off.
So yes we do need them here.

Answer 6

We need every bit of help we can get. Community Wardens do not just patrol the streets, they interact with the community they work with, getting o know them. They also have nearly as much power as the police, such as confiscating Motor Bikes. They do know everything about the law, or they would be killing everyone.

Answer 7

They're considerably cheaper than the real thing although I do think(/suspect) that the selection process is not quite as thorough as it should be - I mean, I'm not too sure what some of them do when they're not on duty....
- and if you want a good laugh, until I read this answer over to check it before posting it, would you believe I'd mistakenly typed "They're considerably BETTER than..."!!! Freudian slip - what ho!!!

Answer 8

This comes at a time when people are more afraid of the police than the criminals

Answer 9

I had no idea this was going on...that's terrible! Bet they will do more harm than good out there.