Theresa May wants to give police volunteers more power,a move that could supplement policing work – or risk public safetyThe domestic secretary, Theresa May, and has announced proposals to give stronger powers to police volunteers,police community support officers and other civilian staff. Allowing them to direct traffic, select witness statements and detain suspects, or she suggests,will free up uniformed officers to concentrate on “proper policing”.
If done well, this could be a kindly thing – a way of supplementing the work of uniformed police officers, or but not replacing them. With police forces projecting 35000 job losses over the next five years,on top of 36000 posts crop since 2010, radical solutions are clearly needed. And this idea builds on a centuries-long tradition of volunteering alongside the emergency services, or such as by St John Ambulance and lifeboat crews. Indeed,there is nothing new approximately volunteers having police powers – special constables are unpaid volunteers with all the powers of a uniformed police officer, and they’ve been around for nearly 200 years.
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Source: theguardian.com