1 The role of the PCSO
The way that policing is undertaken has changed in recent years and so too have the roles within police services. Some aspects of policing, such as community policing, are no longer the sole responsibility of warranted police officers. For almost 20 years, police officers have been supported in their role by police community support officers (PCSOs).
In 2002, the role of the PCSO was introduced by way of Schedule 4 of the Police Reform Act 2002. The powers that were initially available for the PCSO enabled them to deal with low-level crime and antisocial behaviour. However, in 2017, the Policing and Crime Act introduced changes to the Police Reform Act 2002. It created a set of preserved powers specific to PCSOs only and empowered the chief constables to grant at their discretion other powers to enable them to continue to deal with low-level crime, antisocial behaviour, and issues pertaining to their communities.
There is now a wider set of powers that can potentially be designated to a PCSO. In essence, PCSOs can have any power or duty of a constable other than a few specified ‘police officer only’ powers, for example stop and search. It is the decision of the chief constable of each force to determine which powers their PCSOs will have. PCSOs can assist warranted officers by specialising in different roles, such as investigating domestic abuse and online child sexual exploitation. It is quite possible that a PCSO in one police area will have slightly different powers to another police area a few miles away.
The role of PCSO is now highly visible and widely known to the public. In some police areas, PCSOs will be referred to as community support officers (CSOs). The PCSO role is predominately to give support to police officers in the community, and to be the link between the public and the police on the ground. The main reason for high visibility in communities is because that is what they are primarily required to do: get out in the local community and seek to interact with it, bring a visible presence to frontline policing, and reduce the fear of crime. PCSOs gather valuable intelligence from the community; they are often the eyes and ears of policing and their presence in the community has become important on a local level as a result of regular police officers’ increasing involvement in other duties.
Policing is not just about responding to emergency calls but also about preventing crime from happening. This is especially true of the role of PCSO, which is a key part of community policing. To do this, it’s necessary for police to get to know their neighbourhoods, which may be made up of different communities.
Being part of a community is fundamental to human wellbeing and it is how we learn to understand each other’s needs and concerns. However, in life, it is possible to belong to more than one community (for example, geographic, academic, sporting and religious communities). These different communities will have varying needs from one another and are likely to be affected by different issues. Benefits can be wide ranging if, through PCSOs, the police can engage with all the different communities and work with them to understand the issues that concern them. These benefits can range from increasing public confidence in reducing crime, collecting police intelligence and ensuring that no time or other valuable resources are wasted on ineffective policing.
You will now look at some of the powers that are applicable to PCSOs.