Times are hard...
"Times are hard... your afraid to pay the fee... so you find yourself somebody who will do the job for free"
Sorry, I ended up digging out some of my old vinyl stuff over the weekend and came across some old Steely Dan stuff. Sort of summed up my feelings on this post.
(Dirty Work...Cant buy a Thrill..1972..if you were interested )
The Met has announced that its the 175th anniversary of the Special Constabulary. Its aim is to increase its present numbers from 1500 to 4000 by 2008.
This is quite ambitious. There are two problems with maintaining numbers within the Specials.
1. Recruitment.
2. Retainment.
The clear background to those who join the Specials is that it is ' part time' . Unfortunately this can lead to conflicting commitments elsewhere with their full time jobs which pay the everyday bills.
It also has a problem with turnover. There are some who join and enjoy it from the start and attend regularly on fixed dates/ times but the problem is that the 'flexibility' in-built to the hours required can leave those who do attend, when they can, to be struggling to be accepted by the relevant shifts and used to the best advantage.
Specials are a win win option for the Met ( or indeed any other 'Service' ) in that they are a 'relatively' low cost..low maintainance uniformed option, with the bonus that if they do turn up at something that requires positive action (... read arrest...) then as 'sworn' officers they can deal.
Anecdotally the rise and rise of the PCSO has hampered Special recruitment.
It used to be the case that a spell in the Special Constabulary was seen as a good 'inner' if you wished to apply for a full time post.
PCSO's it would appear are now provided with the view that this is the 'staging post' if they looked to join the police.
Given the choice of working part time as a Special for a period ( for all intents and purposes a 'sworn' officer) with a power of arrest and all the grief that brings with it... for travelling/refreshment and footwear allowances...or work full time as a PCSO on over £20000 a year with limited powers.. what would you do?
Sorry, I ended up digging out some of my old vinyl stuff over the weekend and came across some old Steely Dan stuff. Sort of summed up my feelings on this post.
(Dirty Work...Cant buy a Thrill..1972..if you were interested )
The Met has announced that its the 175th anniversary of the Special Constabulary. Its aim is to increase its present numbers from 1500 to 4000 by 2008.
This is quite ambitious. There are two problems with maintaining numbers within the Specials.
1. Recruitment.
2. Retainment.
The clear background to those who join the Specials is that it is ' part time' . Unfortunately this can lead to conflicting commitments elsewhere with their full time jobs which pay the everyday bills.
It also has a problem with turnover. There are some who join and enjoy it from the start and attend regularly on fixed dates/ times but the problem is that the 'flexibility' in-built to the hours required can leave those who do attend, when they can, to be struggling to be accepted by the relevant shifts and used to the best advantage.
Specials are a win win option for the Met ( or indeed any other 'Service' ) in that they are a 'relatively' low cost..low maintainance uniformed option, with the bonus that if they do turn up at something that requires positive action (... read arrest...) then as 'sworn' officers they can deal.
Anecdotally the rise and rise of the PCSO has hampered Special recruitment.
It used to be the case that a spell in the Special Constabulary was seen as a good 'inner' if you wished to apply for a full time post.
PCSO's it would appear are now provided with the view that this is the 'staging post' if they looked to join the police.
Given the choice of working part time as a Special for a period ( for all intents and purposes a 'sworn' officer) with a power of arrest and all the grief that brings with it... for travelling/refreshment and footwear allowances...or work full time as a PCSO on over £20000 a year with limited powers.. what would you do?
1 Comments:
I’d probably choose PCSOing.
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