PCSO Reductions Get rid of em all, waste of time.
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Opinionated yes, idiot , maybe, but as previously stated and requested you do not table any real benefits of having PCSO’s , but then again the likes of Cmedson and mother of the animal, have not started a single topic between them, so are obviously not opinionated. They just bump their gums about the opinions of others, whilst being devoid of anything other than aggression. I stand by my statements, kids dressed up as police men/women do not bring any benefit what so ever, and especially when Wrexham Council is paying a fair junk of their salaries, an almost unique arrangement. Junk the concept it does not work.
PCSOs free up police officers by taking on some of the other tasks, that many of us would complain about the police doing. Meaning the police are able to concentrate their efforts on other things. PCSOs are able to attend community group events/days, give talks, and importantly they are the eyes and ears on the streets. Meaning they can report all manner of things back to the police, for the police to then take action.
It’s easy to sit in your armchair, kick back and complain about things, moan about how taxes are being wasted and so on, but when you take the time to find out what PCSOs do, you’ll begin to realise just how valuable they are, and they should actually be commended for their efforts in supporting the police.
Oh to have time to sit back in an arm chair. You talk as if anyone that expresses an opinion, or as you say “complains”, is over 70, arm chair bound, and, who, prior to expressing an opinion, never researches the topic or social issue on which they are expressing their views. If the role of the PCSO’s is to sooth the brow of concerned residents, or to attend meetings and report back, or, to be the eyes and ears of police officers between the hours of 0900 hrs and 16.30 hrs then it confirms my view that they should all be binned. Because that IS or SHOULD be the role of the fully trained police officers, and if there are not enough of them, enrol more with the funds saved/ BEING WASTED on this useless powerless un needed tier of uniformed street strollers A idealistic simplistic view of their (PCSO’s) INTENDED role is one thing, the reality is that they are a waste of money and creates a false sense of security … for some.
I’m not actually sure I mentioned age? And armchair was used as a figure of speech, I suppose I could say bean bag, stool, sofa, moaning whilst walking? In fact to pick that out of everything I mentioned is a little pedantic. I know people of all ages who ‘like a good moan’ – myself included. It’s human nature.
But back to the point, why would we waste fully trained police officers specialist skills on attending public events, giving talks etc, when this can be taken by others, leaving these officers to actually act on intelligence, therefore making our communities safer places?
To take this to the extreme, it’s a little bit like saying, why do we employ receptionists in our surgeries, when the doctors are actually able to do their own filing? As you can appreciate, that’s an extreme, but the principle is the same.I think rather than measuring the effectiveness of PCSOs whom no doubt as in all jobs some are far better than others, you need to look at this for what it truly is – a cut to the overall policing budget for Wrexham County. Now, if this money being removed from funding PCSOs was being diverted into the training and deployment and sustaining new full time police officer roles, I’m sure no-one would complain, but this isn’t happening.
Plus Exec councillors themselves are complaining about a lack of police visibility on the streets of town and the increase in nuisance, anti-social and theft crimes resulting from drug abuse. Surely, a PCSO is a visible member of the police community and would have some effect in deterring crime (police would respond to PCSO call faster than Joe public call). So by taking PCSOs off the street and not replacing with plods is going to reduce visibility of the police in town and by the councillors own logic increase the feeling of lawlessness and crimes in town and no doubt in the rural communities as well.
Matt, I think that is the most balanced response to date, and I am having a tendency to agree with you.
Ine of the points that have been overlooked is that Wrexham as a Council is actually one of the few Councils that pays anything for PCSO. Irrespective of how effective they are the point is Wrexham residents are paying for servuce other areas either don’t have or they are paid directly from the Police budget.
The question should be:
1. What happens in areas that don’t have PCSO’s — is the crime rate higher than in Wrexham?
2. If an area does not have Council funded PCSO’s do they get a better Police response?Rather than trying to pick holes on how good a particular PCSO is / or not performing the debate should be about funding and response
The point you (Council Watcher) raise re the almost unique arrangement ,Wrexham being one of the VERY few authorities funding PCSO has not been overlooked at all, I mentioned it 26 Dec. Further more I personally do not believe that there is ANY correlation to be made or assumed, between differing areas, crimes rates and the number of PCSO’s. I firmly believe their percents on the streets has no impact on crime figures what so ever, ZERO, hence i think and would support any proposal to bin the entire concept, and spend any savings on front line fully trained, fully authorised, full blown police officers, if if the replacement ration was , for example 5:1.
If I remember correctly the PCSO., was a response by the government of the day to the growing concerns raised by the public and certain police authorities to the lack of funding of the police service which resulted in a halt to recruitment nation wide and the visible presence of police officers on the streets.
The creation of the PCSO., with severly limited legal powers, allowed the government to provide a level of policing at a greatly reduced cost whilst satisfying public concerns that the police would now have a visible presence on the streets thus allaying peoples concerns.
Although the powers of a PCSO., are limited, they do provide a intelligence gathering function, a visible presence and release police officers as previously stated from some duties such as school visits, road safety lectures etc.
I do feel however, that investment and restructuring of the Special Constabulary ( Whose members are fully legalised police officers ) would have been more effective use of resources and funding.
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