Summary

The activity that you’ve just completed, along with the rest of this course, has allowed you to gain a greater understanding of the role of a PCSO. The scope of the role and how the incidents and situations that PCSOs must deal with can vary greatly from one police area to another. Their powers and responsibilities are reflected in this variety and these too can be different from one police area to the next. You have studied an overview of the designated powers of a PCSO.

The course has also looked at further offence legislation used at typical incidents. You will be starting to appreciate the breadth of legislation that a PCSO needs to learn and understand. But these are just some of the powers that a PCSO uses on a regular basis because there are too many to cover in one short course. Others include powers that allow them to deal with vulnerability, such as civil disputes, dealing with offensive weapons, dealing with psychoactive substances, traffic and roads incidents, antisocial behaviour and the gathering of information and intelligence in the community, amongst many others.