What is a "Police Community Support Officer"?

Question

What exactly is a PCSO? Are they traffic wardens? Specialised police officers? Glorified wardens? Are they paid? WHAT ON EARTH ARE THEY???

Answer 1

Well known as Blunketts Bouncers. They were employed to tirelessly search for women that were stupid enough to sleep with him behind his wifes back!!!!! And when you look at him you realise just how stupid they had to be meaning he needed a lot of them!!!!!!!!

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

First of all may I thank everyone ignorant enough to answer without knowing anything about the PCSO role.

Glorified traffic wardens? I have never issued a traffic ticket
Specialist officers? - Of sorts. We are there for community based problems and longer term issues (proactive rather than reactive)
Glorified wardens? - Of what exactly?
Are they paid? - Yeah, about £25k a year depending on shifts and location

I work regularly with a number of police officers and all of them seem to like me (I think they do anyway...)

I decided to be a PCSO because it was the best way of getting in to be a PC

Answer 4

PSCO = A member of staff that works for the police , that is paid.
they are not glorified traffic wardens or specials .

They have different powers

HomeWorking for the policePolice community support officersPolice community support officers
Want to give something back to your community? Then have you considered taking up a challenging role as a police community support officer?

As a police community support officer (PCSO), you will work on the frontline of your local force, providing a visible and reassuring presence on the streets and tackling the menace of anti-social behaviour.

This is a paid, usually full-time position that can lead to a long career with the police.

PCSOs have different roles in different forces, but they usually patrol a beat and interact with the public, while also offering assistance to police officers at crime scenes and major events.

Depending on where you work, you could:

deal with minor offences
offer early intervention to deter people from committing offences
provide support for front-line policing
conduct house-to-house enquiries
guard crime scenes
provide crime prevention advice
You would be a critical part of the force
Although PCSOs do not have the same powers as regular police officers, they still carry a lot of responsibility, and are a critical part of the police force.

Answer 5

They are a step down from the police. They cannot arrest anyone they can only detain someone who they know or suspect has committed a crime for up to 30 mins until a police officer comes to arrest the suspect.

PCSO's have not had the intensive training that the police officers have - which ultimately means they are more 'street friendly' than police officers.

The cars the PCSO's have are marked with'police' but cannot have a siren because they have no powers of arrest and are not trained to deal with dangerous/ important situations.

They are paid less than police officers.

So in short the PCSO's are the general dog's body of the police force. You want a job? - starting salary £26k

Answer 6

They are a job role that are trying to overtake the role of a police man or woman as they are designed to reduce work load on police officers for Minor offences in 10 years time there is hoped to be more of them than police to save money and time and also has part of there duties they are traffic wardens it looks the people above need to know what they are talking about before answering as they are very wrong!

Answer 7

PCSO's gets a commission and don't have the flexibility of arrest, to give up and seek etc. they are there to help teach a conceivable presence and to help decrease minor offences IE public order offences. Specials are known law enforcement officials who do it voluntary. the clarification they don't lead them to each of a similar is simply by fact specials purely paintings some thing like 13hrs a week interior the police PCSO's paintings finished time and that they only grant guidance to the police in a community section. i'm hoping this has helped Sam

Answer 8

I'm quite shocked by the answers to this question. I'm a police officer in central London. There are several PCSOs on my team and they are a valuable asset to the team. They are not volunteers as suggested and the pay in London, depending on shift allowances is up to £25,000. They have different powers to police and basically act as the eyes and ears of the police, they carry police radios and also deal with low level crime and anti-social behaviour. In central London they also assist with many of the ceremonial events and terrorism stops. Some PCSOs are specially traffic trained and have powers to issue tickets for parking and dangerous positioning offences. They also assist in point duty and patrol buses. Basically dealing with unruly passengers and keeping the roads clear.
PCSOs do have the power to detain people for up to 30 until until the arrival of a constable.
The myth that all police hate PCSOs held more weight in the early days when police weren't aware of the role of PCSOs and the police federation was anti-PCSO. I am happy to say that this divide is not as prevailant as it was and the training and recruitment process for PCSOs is much improved. As a police constable, there are many times when I've been assisted in situations by PCSOs. Many PCSOs go on to apply to become regular police officers.

Answer 9

A waste of taxpayers money . We dont want half arsed schemes using plastic police with no powers of arrest, no means of defending themselves and no air of authority. We want REAL police with REAL powers. We want them to lose the hi-vis jackets so crims cant see them coming from 2 miles away, and we want them to be patrolling the streets on foot as a visible deterrent, not whizzing by in cars.

Answer 10

An uprated Traffic Warden...lol

Answer 11

I think Byte & Bulb have answered exactly as i would of, I also work for the police and they are a vital resource within the comminity, and its people like most who have answered have no idea what they do or in fact care what they do because they are anti establishment. Just wait until you need their help in your community.