Police Community Support Officers Research Articles

Peripheral inclusion? Gypsy Roma Traveller Police Association officers speak out

This research article concerns the experiences of 15 members of the Gypsy Roma Traveller Police Association (GRTPA). Following contact via snowball research methods these members - 12 of whom are regular police officers, the remaining three comprising of a retired officer, a civilian member of staff and a police community support officer (PCSO) - agreed to take part in semi-structured interviews. The majority claimed Gypsy, Roma, or Traveller (GRT) heritage, and, set against a conceptual framework concerning anti-gypsyism, the way in which these members are subjected to what is regarded here as “peripheral inclusion” becomes evident as concerns are raised within this article as to the conduct of some police officers towards both GRTPA members and the wider GRT communities. This is framed against a background of three specific topics raised as cause for concern by participants within the initial focus group: policing by consent, the policing of Traveller sites, and the impact of racism on GRTPA members claiming GRT ethnicity. Overall, the key findings indicate that anti-gypsyism impacts relationships between some police and GRTs, that the community appears not to be policed by consent, and that GRTs are commonly viewed as criminal by some police making it difficult for many GRT officers to raise their voices and claim an ethnic status that has been so discredited. Thus a recommendation is for trainee officers to be schooled to appreciate the importance of incorporating cultural competency into the workplace and meaningfully respect diversity in all its forms.

English rural policing: job stress and psychological distress

PurposeJob stressor exposure is associated with mental health in police officers. Police stress research rarely draws a distinction between urban and rural policing, raising the possibility that stressors specific to the rural context remain unidentified and their implications unknown. This may hinder actions to protect the mental health of those involved in policing rural communities.Design/methodology/approachAmong rural policing teams in an English county police force this study used an exploratory sequential mixed method design to (1) identify and quantify exposure to rural policing stressors and (2) examine links between job stressor exposure and psychological distress.FindingsInterviews (N = 34) identified three rural policing job stressor themes: (1) job demands, (2) isolation and (3) critical decisions. Survey data (N = 229) indicated significant differences in exposure by rank to demand and critical decision stressors, with police community support officers (PCSOs) reporting lower exposure than officers of constable and sergeant rank. Overall, 44% of respondents reported symptoms of psychological distress indicative of likely minor psychiatric disorder; higher levels of psychological distress were associated with higher stressor exposure across all three job stressor themes for PCSOs and constables and within the job demand theme for sergeants.Originality/valueFindings point towards practical actions focussed on resource provision for officers and a research strategy to ameliorate the impact of stressors in English rural policing.

Police ethics and integrity: Keeping the ‘blue code’ of silence

This paper examines attitudes towards police ethics and integrity using the responses of police officers and support staff to some ethical dilemmas via an online questionnaire. The aim of the study was to explore potential connections between respondents’ beliefs about the seriousness or type of misdemeanour and their likelihood of reporting the behaviour. Using a series of scenarios, we explore professional ethics and integrity by analysing the evidence from our survey of around 1,500 police officers, police community support officers (PCSOs) and police support staff. Throughout, we aim to show which of the scenarios were considered the most ‘serious’, which are more likely to be reported, and offer some suggestions as to why the ‘blue code’ is significant. The findings suggest the persistence of a reluctance to report some misdemeanours; of the 10 scenarios created for the survey, there was a great deal of certainty around the reporting theft of cash, but respondents were less likely to report a colleague keeping a ‘found’ watch. Accessing the Police National Computer without due authority was seen as relatively ‘serious’ and covering up for a drink-driving colleague and use of excessive force were both likely to be reported. We discovered ambiguities in responses around sexual touching of a colleague in an office setting, but a lower level of concern regarding an officer who forms a romantic relationship with a victim of crime who he met in a professional setting. Respondents expressed distrust in the force’s anonymous messenger system, set up for reporting a colleague’s behaviour without revealing their own identity and said they could treat a whistle-blower with respect or caution, depending on the circumstances of the individual case.

Book review: Megan O’Neill, Police Community Support Officers: Cultures and Identities within Pluralised Policing

Book review: Megan O’Neill, <i>Police Community Support Officers: Cultures and Identities within Pluralised Policing</i>

‘They wanna be us’; PCSO performances, uniforms, and struggles for acceptance.

ABSTRACT Police community support officers (PCSOs) in England and Wales have become an integral part of neighbourhood policing since their national roll-out in 2008. The research reported here is based on the first-hand accounts of PCSOs from a four-month ethnographic study in a northern police force. Using Erving Goffman’s theoretical framework and concept of performances, this paper argues that PCSOs still face ongoing pressures from inside the organisation to defend their position to police colleagues. PCSOs are still experiencing negative and bullying attitudes toward their existence and document the difficulties they face in being accepted. In response to this, some PCSOs have been known to conceal their status by modifying their uniform and using a current desire for increased visibility to enable presentational strategies in image management.

Developing Volunteers in Policing: Assessing the Potential Volunteer Police Community Police Officer

AbstractCommunity or reassurance policing in the UK has developed concurrently with diversification and expansion of the policing family, including the broadening of volunteer opportunities beyond the traditional Special Constable and Police Support Volunteer roles. To increase capacity and capability in community-based policing, one Force introduced Volunteer Police Community Support Officers (VPCSOs) to complement that of employed PCSOs. This paper presents an exploratory discussion on a small-scale study of a previously un-researched and evolutionary area of police volunteering; evaluating the effectiveness of the VPCSO role reviewing its impact as a means of increasing community connectivity and meeting public demands for visibility policing. The introduction of VPCSOs was seen as successful by the Force involved which continues to develop the role as a useful ‘policing resource’. However, challenges to success were identified, not least the uncertainty surrounding the delegation of powers to volunteers that required a change in primary legislation.

Changes in new recruits’ motivation and intentions to use a learning portfolio

The purpose of the study was to examine motivation and intentions to complete a learning portfolio. Seventy newly recruited Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) at a UK police constabulary completed questionnaires at four different time points during training that examined their perceptions of the instrumentality of the learning portfolio and their intention to complete it. Results revealed decreases in motivation and intention over the four training periods, with substantially lower ratings six months into training. This study provides insight of the malleability of motivation and attitudes towards the learning portfolio, suggesting that trainers should pay more attention to motivational processes.

Supporting police community support officers to become effective school link officers: key stakeholder perceptions of a pilot professional development programme

This article presents the findings of a pilot professional development programme designed to support police community support officers (PCSOs) to become effective school link officers (SLOs) within urban secondary schools in the English West Midlands. Findings are presented via perceptions of key stakeholders: SLOs themselves; school-based mentors supporting the work of SLOs; and the West Midlands Police officer coordinating aspects of the project. The agreed professional development model comprised a two-day induction programme; school-based mentoring and coaching; and SLOs’ reflections via a small-scale action research project. Findings reveal the complexities of community policing in contemporary urban secondary school contexts and the challenges of enhancing the professional status of the SLO. Although PCSOs have been working as SLOs for several years, preparation for this role has been inadequate and the issue has generally been overlooked in the literature. The pivotal role of effective school-based mentorship, opportunities for reflection and gaining national professional recognition via the action research project emerge as particularly positive features of the professional development model. With the ultimate aim of safeguarding young people, recommendations are also made to further develop the model to enhance SLOs’ professional learning and effectiveness and to maximise inter-professional working.

“Soft” policing at hot spots—do police community support officers work? A randomized controlled trial

To determine whether crime-reduction effects of increased police patrols in hot spots are dependent on the “hard” threat of immediate physical arrest, or whether “soft” patrols by civilian (but uniformed) police staff with few arrest powers and no weapons can also reduce crime. We also sought to assess whether the number of discrete patrol visits to a hot spot was more or less important than the total minutes of police presence across all visits, and whether effects based on counts of crime would be consistent with effects on a Crime Harm Index outcome. We randomly assigned 72 hot spots into 34 treatment units and 38 controls. Treatment consisted of increases in foot patrol by uniformed, unarmed, Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) who carry no weapons and hold few arrest powers beyond those of ordinary citizens. GPS-trackers on every PCSO and Constable in the city yielded precise measurements of all patrol time in all hot spots. Standardized mean differences (Cohen’s d), OLS regression model, and Weighted Displacement Quotient are used to assess main effects, to model the interaction effect of GPS data with treatment, and to measure the diffusion-of-benefits of the intervention, respectively. Outcomes included counts of incidents as well as the Cambridge Crime Harm Index. As intended, patrol visits and minutes by Police Constables were equal across the treatment and control groups. The sole difference in policing between the treatments groups was in visits to the hot spots by PCSOs, in both the mean daily frequency of discrete visits (T = 4.65, C = 2.66; p ≤ .001) and total minutes across all visits (T = 37.41, C = 15.92; p ≤ .001), approximately two more ten-minute visits per day in treatment than in control. Main effect estimates suggest 39 % less crime by difference-in-difference analysis of reported crimes compared to control conditions, and 20 % reductions in emergency calls-for-service compared to controls. Crime in surrounding areas showed a diffusion of benefits rather than displacement for treatment hot spots compared to controls. A “Reiss’s Reward” effect was observed, with more proactive patrols predicting less crime across treatment hot spots, while more reactive PCSO time predicted more crime across control hot spots. Crime Harm Index estimates of the seriousness value of crime prevented ranged from 85 to 360 potential days of imprisonment in each treatment group hot spot (relative to controls) by a mean difference of 21 more minutes of PCSO patrol per day, for a potential return on investment of up to 26 to 1. A crime reduction effect of extra patrols in hot spots is not conditional on “hard” police power. Even small differences in foot patrols showing the “soft power” of unarmed paraprofessionals, holding constant vehicular patrols by Police Constables, were causally linked to both lower counts of crimes and a substantially lower crime harm index score. Correlational evidence within the treatment group suggests that greater frequency of discrete PCSO visits may yield more crime reduction benefit than greater duration of those visits, but RCTs are needed for better evidence on this crucial issue.

Police Community Support Officers in Schools: Findings from an Evaluation of a Pilot Training Programme for School Liaison Officers

Police Community Support Officers in Schools: Findings from an Evaluation of a Pilot Training Programme for School Liaison Officers

Fear of crime on the rail networks: Perceptions of the UK public and British Transport Police

Counter-terrorism on the rail network is vital to the security of the United Kingdom. The British Transport Police (BTP) employ covert and overt security measures to prevent crime, which includes: closed circuit television, armed police, unarmed polisce, police community support officers, police dogs, stops and searches and awareness campaigns. All security measures aim to deter crime while importantly reassuring the public. We surveyed both members of the public and BTP officers about the perceived effectiveness of current security measures, specifically with regards to fear of terrorism. Feelings of reassurance and the perceived effectiveness of security measures were positively related. The most effective and reassuring security measure was the use of armed police; whereas the least effective and reassuring was the use of awareness campaigns. However, interestingly, qualitative analyses suggested that an increase in armed police without informed awareness campaigns would have a negative impact on public reassurance by increasing fear.

A case for local neighbourhood policing and community intelligence in counter terrorism

Neighbourhood policing is often considered by those responsible for policing to be a soft option, carried out by a few select police officers and police community support officers located in small geographical areas, and is not considered by many to be real policing. This article attempts to dispel this misconception, by suggesting that neighbourhood policing (as originally intended) is a style of policing undertaken by all police officers and staff to identify, action and resolve problems within communities, including virtual and non-traditional communities. Problems within this context would also include more serious crimes and disorders, such as terrorism.

‘I wannabe a copper’: The engagement of Police Community Support Officers with the dominant police occupational culture

Drawing upon ethnographic research with Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) working in two neighbourhood policing teams in northern England, this article presents a typology of PCSO orientations to work and for the first time details the ways in which PCSOs utilize aspects of the dominant culture to manage the discord between aspirations and opportunities within the PCSO role. Engagement with aspects of the dominant culture varied according to career aspirations and orientations to work; ‘Frustrated PCSOs’ were most likely to endorse cultural characteristics as a means of facilitating integration and enhancing opportunities for crime control, while Professional PCSOs selectively endorsed aspects of the dominant culture in an effort to diversify their deployment, enhance their effectiveness and to support the acquisition of craft skills, thereby strengthening any future applications to become police officers. The article concludes by considering the resilience of the traditional police culture, particularly the dominant crime-fighting ethos therein and the implications presented for the future of the PCSO role.

A critical evaluation of current and future roles of police community support officers and neighbourhood wardens within the Metropolitan Police Service and London boroughs

The article considers problems surrounding the delivery of visible policing in London, particularly in relation to the continuing challenge for police managers of delivering neighbourhood policing in the capital. It assesses the value of police community support officers (PCSOs) in terms of delivery of neighbourhood policing against a background of high abstraction rates. It also considers the changing role and purpose of the community support officer function within many police forces. It evaluates the potential benefits of an expansion of community wardens who might provide a ‘high-value low-cost’ option to what can be, aside from the enforcement role, a ‘high-cost low-value’ policing alternative.

Police community support officers in England: a dramaturgical analysis

Police community support officers (PCSOs) have become an integral part of neighbourhood policing teams (NPTs) in England and Wales since the national roll-out of neighbourhood policing in 2008. Most research on PCSOs examines their outward-facing role, such as in the extent to which these police staff have become community engagement or enforcement-orientated. While this is important to consider, what is also important is the manner in which PCSOs have been accepted by the police organisation internally. This can have a bearing on the degree to which PCSOs are able to fulfil their roles in neighbourhood policing. The research reported here is based on a six-month observational study of PCSOs in England. Using Goffman's dramaturgical framework and concept of performance teams, this article argues that PCSOs and police constables (PCs) comprise separate performance teams within each NPT group, although the degree of separation between PC and PCSO teams varied from one NPT to another. One element of this relationship which was generally consistent was that police officers and supervisors tended to value more highly PCSO work which was enforcement-orientated. This challenges PCSOs to enhance this side of their performances in spite of their limited statutory powers. Some PCSOs experienced this as a daily pressure to justify their existence to police colleagues, leaving them as disillusioned and unsatisfied staff. This was clearly expressed in the use of space in these police stations in that PCSOs sought out spaces where they could relax in their own exclusive ‘back stage’ areas, away from police colleagues.

Municipal Law Enforcement Officers: towards a new system of local policing in the Netherlands?

Since the early 2000s, Dutch city councils have sought to professionalise City Wardens (Stadswachten), transforming them into Municipal Law Enforcement Officers (MLEOs). MLEOs, who hold limited police powers, are now regarded as ‘Special Investigative Officers’ (Buitengewoon Opsporingsambtenaren – BOAs) and are mostly appointed to supervise local neighbourhoods and town centres. Compared to Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs, who are lower-rank police officials) and private (or commercial) security guards, MLEOs are a different type of ‘plural’ or ‘auxiliary’ policing agents, employed by the municipal authorities. This paper explores why MLEOs have become so popular in the Netherlands; the practice and practicalities of municipal policing; and whether the Dutch police will maintain their central position in a highly fragmented system of local security governance. The underlying purpose here is to reflect on the particularities of auxiliary policing in a non-English-speaking nation.

The Case for the Acceptable 'Other': The Impact of Partnerships, PCSOs, and Neighbourhood Policing on Diversity in Policing

Policing in England and Wales has experienced several significant events and developments since the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993. Although the Lawrence Report is perhaps the most well-known among these, other initiatives such as multi-agency partnerships, the creation of the Police Community Support Officer role and the national roll-out of Neighbourhood Policing have also had a marked impact on the organization. Using findings from two research projects, this article will argue that policing in England and Wales is far more outward-focused and open to collaboration with a diverse range of people, agencies and staff than has ever been the case. This has led to a noticeable shift in cultural orientation among some segments of service. However, the current funding restrictions in policing put all of these developments, from operational matters to wider ethos, at risk.

Integrating Information from Multiple Methods into the Analysis of Perceived Risk of Crime: The Role of Geo-Referenced Field Data and Mobile Methods

This paper demonstrates the use of mixed methods discovery techniques to explore public perceptions of community safety and risk, using computational techniques that combine and integrate layers of information to reveal connections between community and place. Perceived vulnerability to crime is conceptualised using an etic/emic framework. The etic “outsider” viewpoint imposes its categorisation of vulnerability not only on areas (“crime hot spots” or “deprived neighbourhoods”) but also on socially constructed groupings of individuals (the “sick” or the “poor”) based on particular qualities considered relevant by the analyst. The range of qualities is often both narrow and shallow. The alternative, emic, “insider” perspective explores vulnerability based on the meanings held by the individuals informed by their lived experience. Using recorded crime data and Census-derived area classifications, we categorise an area in Southern England from an etic viewpoint. Mobile interviews with local residents and police community support officers and researcher-led environmental audits provide qualitative emic data. GIS software provides spatial context to analytically link both quantitative and qualitative data. We demonstrate how this approach reveals hidden sources of community resilience and produces findings that explicate low level social disorder and vandalism as turns in a “dialogue” of resistance against urbanisation and property development.

It is what you do as well as the way that you do it: the value and deployment of PCSOs in achieving public engagement

Resurgent efforts to reconnect the police with local communities and encourage more positive engagement with the public gained momentum over the last decade in England and Wales in the recent move from community to neighbourhood policing. Drawing on data from two ethnographic studies conducted in two English forces, one with a community police team and the other across two neighbourhood policing teams, this paper considers whether neighbourhood policing, specifically the introduction of police community support officers (PCSOs), has achieved more meaningful engagement where its predecessors have struggled, or whether the obstacles and pitfalls that have hindered previous models remain. It demonstrates that PCSOs are achieving more inclusive engagement in local communities, but their efforts are mitigated by their structured position in the organisation, aspirations to become police officers and the organisational environment in which they work. In light of such constraints, we argue that the capacity of PCSOs to break down barriers between the police and disaffected members of local communities and facilitate more representative public participation in policing would be greatly enhanced if they are driven by crime prevention and capacity building rather than crime control imperatives.

No Time Out: Mobility, Rhythmicity and Urban Patrol in the Twenty-Four Hour City

This paper is about the twenty-four hour city and analyses this phenomenon with the assistance of a case study dispersed across (temporally and spatially) twenty-four hours spent moving in, around and with the city centre of Cardiff, UK. Reporting from a continuous twenty-four hour period of fieldwork the paper describes the round-the-clock work of a range of urban patrols – street sweepers, Police Community Support Officers and outreach workers – who, in various ways, contribute to the maintenance of the social and physical fabric of the city centre. Describing the seemingly disparate activities of these patrols, we make an argument for an attention to the polychronic mobility practices in and through which the street-level politics of space, movement and time are produced and negotiated. Indeed, the circulations of these patrols throws up a supporting cast of vulnerable street-populations – the homeless, street drinkers and street-based sex workers. Here, then, we juxtapose our description of this quotidian city with the imagery and politics of the ‘24-Hour City’ in pointing to a nuanced (rather than adversarial) and mobile (rather than static) relationship between need and vulnerability and the management of space, time and mobility in the city centre.