Conclusion

This free course, Understanding PCSO powers, set out to help you gain a greater understanding of the role of Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) and consider some of their powers and responsibilities.

The main learning points for the course are:

• 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.
• They are required to get out in the local community and seek to interact with it, bringing a visible presence to frontline policing, and reduce the fear of crime.
• They engage with every local community, working with them to understand the issues that concern them. The benefits of this approach range from increasing public confidence to reducing crime and gathering valuable police intelligence.
• PCSOs are employed directly by the local police authority they work for and some of their powers can be amended, if need be, by the local chief officer. This means it is quite possible that a PCSO in one police area will have slightly different powers to another PCSO in a different police area.
• They have powers under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) to search people and seize property.
• They also have powers under other legislation to deal with a variety of situations. This includes where vehicles are used in manner which causes alarm, distress or annoyance, seizing alcohol from under 18s, and dealing with people who are drunk and disorderly.

This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course BXY138 Professional PCSO practice (work-based learning) [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .