Man Detained As Terror Suspect For Photographing Police Car

[Marcel]

PCSO's are support staff.
Special Constables, when on duty, are full sworn-in constables with powers of arrest.

PS. Lets keep this discussion polite. By all means disagree with each other, but leave insults and digs out of it please.

 

[Steve Smith]

PCSO's are support staff.
Special Constables, when on duty, are full sworn-in constables with powers of arrest.

I think that's right.

My wife was a special constable about twelve years ago. The training was similar to full time constables. I'm not sure if it is now though.

On the Isle of Wight, most of our Traffic Wardens became PCSOs. I think that was because our traffic wardens were actually police employed traffic officers rather than council employed wardens.

And we all have the power of arrest.



Steve.

 

[fracster]

PS. Lets keep this discussion polite. By all means disagree with each other, but leave insults and digs out of it please.

Darn it,i`ll stay outta the thread then............

 

[barneyrubble]

Thanks, just Googled it and it would appear that Special Constables are still used, and that PCSO's have less power than Special Constables, primarily they are used to tackle anti social behaviour, dog fouling, riding on footpaths, and youth crimes.

Reinforces my point that they would not have the same level of training as a full time Police Officer, which would go some way to explain the error of their ways in this instance.

One of my mates is a PCSO, and you're right.

In fact, internally they're called CHIMPS.

Stands for Can't Help In Most Police Situations

 

[Marcel]

The training was similar to full time constables. I'm not sure if it is now though.

Training is a bit of a hot potato amongst the Specials, and the level they receive varies force by force.
Some forces give minimal training and shove them out, others...once they are on duty they are treated like regular officers.

 

[Hacker]

I must admit I have an issue with Specials, not at a personal level but the way they are treated. In my experience Specials are often people who have been refused entry into the regular police because they have failed the interview and selection process and are told to go and be a Special for a few years. This is what really ticks me off because if they are not good enough to do the job with full time training how the hell can they be considered good enough with much less training? It's a very cynical way for the various police forces to get policing on the cheap.