special constables and community support officers?

Question

are they the same thing?
20 years ago i used to know a man who was a special constable around southend. he used to patrol with a full time policeman around closing time. he also had a full time day job. he got all the aggro of a full timer and he got paid nothing.

community support officers seem to be full timers. what is all that about. either they are full time and fully trained or not.

do they still have specials or has the community support officer taken over from them?

Answer 1

Special Constables are volunteer police officers. They have all the powers of a full time police officer but are unpaid. They are trained, however not to the level of a full timer. Generally they will come out one or two evenings a week and assist full time cops. This will be because they enjoy what they are doing and some use is as a way to step up towards becoming a full time cop.

PCSO's are full time. They are paid for what they do. The purpose of the PCSO is that they deal with all the lesser nuisance jobs, etc, allowing police officers to concentrate on other matters. PCSO's have far less powers than police officers.

I am not entirely sure that the role of a PCSO works.

Answer 2

Special Constables are unpaid, part-time volunteers, usually used for large events; football matches, rock concerts, etc. Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) are paid employees. They have been introduced by the Government to try to fool the public into thinking that they are as effective a presence on the street as Police Officers, and are saving the public money as they are apparently cheaper than Police Officers.

However, PCSOs have no power of arrest and are not trained in the theory and enforcement of the law are Police Officers are. They are there to make the Government look as if they're investing in law enforcement, but the money spent on them would be far better spent recruiting, training and - most importantly - retaining and rewarding the existing Police Officers.

Answer 3

No a special is a volunteer who gets paid expenses only but has the full powers of a full time policeman. A Community Support officer is employed by the Police Authority but has very limited powers

Answer 4

Amazing some uninformed answers there.
Right. Special Constables are:
Unpaid
Volunteers
Work approx 4/5 hours a week

PCSO's are paid, and work upwards of 37 1/2 hours a week.
PCSO's have varying powers depending on what force they work for. In Nottinghamshire for example they have nearly as many powers as a police officer. Any powers they do have can only be used when in uniform.

Specials have all the powers of a police officer, but rarely have enough experience to utilise them unless they are accompanied by a PCSO or a police officer.

Answer 5

PCSO's get paid and do not have the power of arrest, to stop and search etc. They are there to help show a viable presence and to help lower minor offences IE public order offences. Specials are normal police officers who do it voluntary. The reason they don't make them all the same is because specials only work something like 13hrs a week in the police PCSO's work full time and they only provide assistance to the police in a local area. I hope this has helped Sam

Answer 6

20 years ago my uncle Jack was a special constable in southend. and yes you are right. he got all the agro and the problems but none of the pay. he joined the specials in 1961.

Answer 7

T'other night I had to pick up one of my kids, parked outside the place, 1/2 on pavement, 1/2 off pavement, not causing obstruction to traffic or pedestrians, no yellow lines anywhere either. Only planned to be there 1 minute, but ended up being there 10 minutes. My bad. Naughty naughty.

When I got out there was a PCSO hovering by my car waiting to tell me "I could give you a £30 ticket". Meanwhile a gang of 20 or so hoodies were up to no good 25 yards away...

Don't you love paying your council tax for these waste-of-time wannabe coppers? *sigh*

Answer 8

No there not the same thing. They are wannabes, they think they have the power but dont. For instance. i was walking along the path, listening to some great tunes. well anyway i crossed the road, (no cars i might add because its at 3am) and some Community support officer actually went out of his way crossed another road, just to tell me not to cross the road with my ipod playing. Told em to come back when there a proper copper. And another time last year, they were telling some kids off for having a snowball fight in the local park. One thing about em, POWER TRIP or what. As you can probably tell i dont like em, and dont see the point of them.

Answer 9

No they are different in that Specials still dont get paid and Community support officers get around £23,000 pa. Specials dont have powers of arrest as where SOME community officers do although not all of them. Specials will go anywhere on a shift as where COmmunity support officers have a specific area to patrol so they get to know the people, they are more like street wardens rather than police. At the end of the day - they are ALL pretend policemen who the public dont have any faith in xxxx

Answer 10

yes but they do have important things to do,catching cig butt droppers,litterbugs,and reporting kids twagging school!!