Exhibits, Shows and Displays - PCSOs - Are They Completely Useless...?

PCSOs - Are They Completely Useless...?

...they allow a child to drown whilst watching on because they're not allowed to intervene, now they simply stand by as a 55 year old man is attacked in broad daylight and leave a 59 year old woman to step in to defend the victim. What exactly are Labour's 'Plastic PCs' good for? Complete waste of taxpayers money in my opinion... http://www.wimbledonguardian.co.uk/news/topstories/display.var.1810918.0.great_gran_claims_pcsos_left_her_to_help_beaten_man.php A man was viciously attacked with a stick by a gang of teen girls as two PCSOs looked on, a great-grandmother has claimed. Astonished Ann Ward rushed to help the 55-year-old man who was assaulted in broad daylight in Ravensbury Park, Morden. The 59-year-old was forced to step in because the police community support officers did nothing, she said. Kleptomaniac - yes, let's give them the same training as all police, then they can actually BE police because that's what I, and the actual police themselves, would rather have the money spent on. PCSOs are nothing more than political sock puppets created by Labour, via their crony Ian Blair, to give the illusion that there are more police on the ground than there actually is. Complete and utter waste of time!

Public Comments

Yes it does seem as if they are useless.What are they supposed to do?All I ever see them doing is standing around looking gormless.
Yes the woman in her 50's was more use, wasn't she? From what I have heard from people who work with them they are pretty hopeless. They have no power of arrest, they should spend the extra few thou on employing real cops. LOL at Yahoo above, well said.
we have 2 PCSOs in our town and they are useless,they are as wet as a babys blanket.The youths just laugh at them.
about that drowning! that woman wrote to take a break months before it came on the news.. and there was no mention of any pcso's!! in fact she wrote that how the boy had gone with a couple of friends and his younger sister to go swimming in the lake as they always went there while she chatted with friends at home.. on the news it was said they went to play beside the lake!! why??? cos the revelation that a woman allowed a 10 yr old and 8 yr old to go swimming unsupervised would over shadow the pcso part????? i am glad of the daily pcso presence here in sutton! they are not police officers but eyes and ears for them!! so dont take them out of context....
Why is this not on National TV. It's a bloody disgrace.
clueless yes indeed
yeah - they have no power. they're not allowed to touch you, basically. they have to call for backup. i think we should concentrate on giving them more training, so that they can ease the pressure on real policemen/women, rather than creating more problems/outcries...
They are good for some things. I have had some good experiences of them and with them in my line of work.
i hear what your saying....i know its not on the same level, but my friend just got a job as a school playground assistant....i know its not the same as a pcso but my point is the guidelines are the same....you can not physically lay a hand on anyone....my m8 said that terrible vicious fights would break out and the 'dinner ladys' had to stand around absolutely helpless, with no means of intervening because they couldnt 'touch' a child....
Just another "Cheap Jack" scam from Labour. I see it on a par with their lunatic idea of using the hard shoulder of the Motorway, as an extra lane. It could prove interesting, to catalogue all the miserly schemes that he has stuck England with.
Why do we need them? They are a waste of space, let alone money. What we need is more real policemen.
PCSO's are simply expensive scarecrows, to provide a uniformed presence on the street, The majority probably would like to be able to do more as individuals, but until the current fashion of protecting our own backs for risk of reprisals, in other words the suing culture has passed, then can you blame them. No doubt if they had intervened, they would be seen as exceeding their authority, the skum doing the attacking would know this, take it to court, win the case and the PCSO's would be left unemployed and with good reason to be scratching their heads, wondering what just happened!!!!!
OH YES INDEEDY. MY little girl got attacked by a staffie and they didnt even know the dog law..it took months of chasing them and making complaints until the inspector visited my home to offer an apology and a guarante that they would be trained in the subject. furthrmore one pcso carried on writing parking tickets across the road from a shop which was being robbed despite the fact that people had alerted her to what was going on..useless and potentially dangerous because of their uselessness.
See your point Shelok,diversionary to the letting two small children out to swim on there own.Got a certain ring dont you think,responseability and where it lies.Although i do feel they should have stepped in,the real cause is the children being there alone in the first instance.However,i am not to happy paying council tax for PCSO,s when the original plan was for goverment to foot the bill.That soon changed,and iv no doubt some of the PCSO,s would rather be the real thing.As it takes no educational certificates to join the force,they must all qualify in them stakes,but again its probably in house cash squabbles