The Other Side
Johnno,
As an Ex PCSO of the South Yorkshire Force I feel I can comment on your feelings regarding the use and deployment
of the PCSO’s.
When I joined up after 14 years as a professional driver I was excited at the prospect of being able to help members
of the public, get into schools working with the kids, and maybe more importantly working on the streets (And youth
clubs/centres) helping people overcome their fears of crime (Perceived or otherwise) At first I really, really did
enjoy my new role, but as time went on I suddenly began to realise the PCSO’s indeed did appear to be “policing on the
Cheap”
We tended to be initially mainly street walkers, intel gatherers. Where on receipt of any relevant info we could complete the
documentation required to pass on to other departments to be acted upon. I was happy with this
approach because it meant I could interact with people and help them if I could.
After around 3 months or so, I was transferred along with a colleague to a new safer neighbourhood team - SNT. Again I was excited by this prospect as
I would still be working the same area as before as the SNT boundaries remained basically the same. This also meant
I could continue to serve the public I’d got to know during the time I had been in post.
However, it soon transpired that I was to be moved to another area (This was decided at a meeting at which I was not
present) to cover for a member of staff who had decided to leave the force. I embraced the challenge being the
resilient person I am. What I did not expect was the fact that all the PCSO’s at my station had very little or
no backup whatsoever from the police officers based at our SNT. I can only describe the said officers as being
very career motivated by using any means possible to boost their status (and PDJ status) in order for them to move
up the career ladder. That usually meant the PCSO allocated to work alongside him/her doing most of the work while they took the credit.
All the officers weren’t like this I have to say, maybe 3 out of the 6 working there, and I am in no way saying that all others officers behave in
this way.
I was also told by my supervisor and the SNT inspector that we had to start “hassling” (Their words, not mine) the local
yobbo’s and drug users/dealers. This was to be undertaken on a daily basis using means at our disposal such as PNC
checks every time we saw them and generally making then feel uncomfortable in the area.
I voiced my concerns at the time regarding this, as we had no PPE issued except for the obligatory body armour (as PCSO’s we weren’t supposed to be
confrontational?) And I asked what would happen should these undesirables take offence to me hounding them every time I saw
them on the streets. I was simply told “you have a radio haven’t you, use it”.
Other times we were told to tackle anti-social behaviour, yep that’s more like it, that’s what we’re here for I thought!
so there was me thinking we’d be going into the parks at night and dealing with youths drinking, or motorcycle
nuisance maybe? Nope, our supervisor thought it fun if we should tell 10 year old kids not to ride on the
pavement and to ride on the roads instead? Erm, I think not! I have a 10 year old son, and no way would
I allow him to use our congested, dangerous roads with his bike. I am well aware that it’s an offence to ride a bike
on the footpath, but there are common sense issues here? I tended to advise them regarding the usage of footpaths, and taking care around pedestrians,
an action which wasn’t very well received by my superiors. They wanted anti social behaviour letters sending…to boost the numbers.
I was ordered to send out a collection of anti social behaviour letters by my supervisor as a local resident had allegedly “seen” a group of young lads smashing windows on her street and named all of them, after lengthy discussions with the Inspector and my supervisor where I expressed my concern as to whether she actually “knew” them I was simply told to get on with it. It turned out at least one of the group was on holiday in Spain, caused quite a stir as you can imagine!
Another fun idea was to send anti-social behaviour letters to 8 year old kids, and sometimes even younger than this
for playing football on housing estates and making a bit of noise in the process. Again we all know that its an
offence to play football on the highway but lets use a common sense approach here, the councils won’t provide
anywhere for kids to play, so what do they do?
I tend to be of an outspoken character, for which I will make no apologies, so I tended to make my feelings known
as a PCSO which I can only say didn’t go down too well at times. I wanted to work WITH the community, not against
them by sending stupid letters to little kids for having a bit of fun. By all means if they were running around
causing havoc, setting fires and being general a nuisance then fair cop, I’ll send the letters, I’ll get them
onto anti-social behaviour contracts with the council (And I have done this)
Just before I finally lost it with the job I was working with the local school bobby. Visiting schools doing the
Miss Dorothy project. Now this is what I joined up to do I thought, lets get into the schools and get to know
the kids at a very young age, help them out and gain some respect at the same time by showing them how look
after themselves should the need ever arise. The project was very successful and both me and the police officer
received high praise form the schools for the performances we put on. However my supervisor and the Inspector
didn’t believe that I, as a PCSO should be getting involved in projects such as this, I was there to walk the
streets aimlessly (Not the right wording maybe?) gathering information and getting to know the public…something which I had already done.
Eventually I became so disillusioned with the job I made the decision to walk away from it. I took my LGV class 2 last
October and passed. This was my way out of a job that had done absolutely nothing for me except a high stress level
and high blood pressure! Although I felt proud that at least I had attempted to make a difference and made a lot of gains in the process.
I finally left the job in September 2006 after nearly 2 years. I had always wanted to join the police force and thought I
had at last found a job where I could make a real difference to people, how wrong I was.
All I ended up doing was a police officers job, with very little powers and very little support and training to boot,
playing a numbers game which was brought into play every time we attended meetings (of which there are far too many, in my opinion)
And being used for jobs which some police officers had no intention of even trying to do.
Give me a driving job any day, more enjoyable, more fulfilling (to me anyway) and good riddance to being a PCSO.
Kind regards, and sorry for the rambling email!
Paul
