handy wrote:
SafeSpeed wrote:
- Will they be used progressively to get policing on the cheap,
hit the nail on the head there - I lit on the uniform and checkerboard markings specifically as I think if they drove about in head to toe hi-viz in highly marked (but not checkerboard ... maybe hi viz all over) transit vans then they would be less of an issue.
Having mused some more, I generally support the "idea" of PCSO's but again, there is a potential issue with them that people who would NOT be allowed to join the BiB see it as a way to get a uniform and swagger. Probably why they didn't make it into the police in the first place. Of course the other way to look at it is that we should ALL be PCS ... oooooh, social responsibility, that'll never catch on!
I gather there is a similar thread on this over on PH SP&L. WIldy has already passed comment.
Basically she wants proper police and not "on the cheap with no clout to "get get the bad guys out there".
She mentioned First Aid based on her own personal experience that awful morning - and I will re-iterate here.. we owe one of the Cheshire Traffic Cops (one of the stars on that BBC prog) a hell of a debt which we can never repay... he kept her alive basically... and was a rock at that moment. The one who came to find me to break the awful news and take me to her.. so full of empathy and sympathy. He drove very skillfully at speeds I would normally enjoyed too. to get me to her. Stayed with me throughout and was just there supporting me far and above the call of his duties.
As for PCSOs and HATOs.. I have chatted to them when I've seen them on duty. Very genuine and concerned individuals who hope to "make a difference to our lives".
Their problem? They are like the supply teachers and classroom assistants in the schools.. in that they have zero powers to arrest or apprehend and the yobs do know it. I think they have an unnecessary hard time because of this. I also think theat the police do not deployu this resource as efficiently as they could do.. which also does not help anyone.
I do appreciate the individuals who sign up for this job.. but really I'd rather have proper policemen.
I will be fair .. in a rural area like ours.. they can get help relatively quickly. By and large - rural folk police themselves as well. Ours is a more ordered way of life and maybe why we are at some odds with the likes of an Eastender like spinny who is perhaps exposed to a city dregs which the Swiss and self in our rural retreats do not come across.
Sure.. we have the odd idiot and tourist .. but in rural Brumstromia, Lancs Hills, Cumbrian Fells, rural Northumberland, Borders, Co Durham, Yorks Dales, South Wales backwaters. .. and the rural Fens of the East.. where various family live .. we are aware of the tourists and we simply make those COAST defensive allowances for them.
But in the towns like Penrith.. Carlisle.. Preston/.. Lancaster.. Manchester.. I fear they are a dog unable to bark at felons.