At first I thought that the community support officer was a cheap and sensible method of enforcing the law. However it would seem that this is not really the case. On paper a CSO (community support officer) salary is about half of a police constables. Unfortunately you never see just one CSO, they operate in pairs. This coupled with their lack of powers of arrest (yes I know that anyone can make a citizens arrest) takes away any financial savings.
Could it be that instead of having 20 plastic policemen (CSOs) in an area it would be wiser to recruit 10 beat bobbies who can patrol on their own and should be a more effective deterrent?
It would be interesting to hear what serving and ex serving police officers have to say on CSOs
Could it be that instead of having 20 plastic policemen (CSOs) in an area it would be wiser to recruit 10 beat bobbies who can patrol on their own and should be a more effective deterrent?
It would be interesting to hear what serving and ex serving police officers have to say on CSOs