Blast From the Past

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

TPCSO

Traffic Police Community Support Officers?

Oh deary me. This was brought to my attention on good old ps.com (usually get my info here before most other places!)

It seems that the "C" from pCso is being removed! Where is the community in traffic?

I am sure when PCSO's were introduced they had a clear set role and that they would not have powers given to them thus creating a two tiered police service.

Personally, I think this is a bloody stupid idea. I have offered asked and begged on numerous occasions for a traffic attachment (and a dog one for that) and have been denied for "health and safety reasons", so how come PCSO's are being able to? (yes thats a bit of jelousy!)

Also, what about the following points:

What happens if a car fails to stop (hang on - why would they be stopping a car, and how??)
Do they pursue?
Can they only pursue for 30 mins?
If there is a decamp do they arrest?
Using what to handcuff?

All these issues.

As one poster has stated on ps.com, "No, no, no. This is mission creep at it's most sinister." Obviously I shall let you decide!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

We have those on my force, but ours have no Police Traffic powers e.g stopping, Hort 1's e.t.c, it just means that they have traffic warden powers, e.g parking tickets.
dunno if its the same on yours.

PC Common Sense said...

You are right to be jealous. If I were a Special i'd be feeling very under valued at present.

PC Plastic Fuzz said...

No need whatsoever to be even partly jealous, most of us are disgusted by the idea.

A TPCSO is just a PCSO who also has the same powers of a Traffic Warden (only they don’t have quotas, and use their “digression” on every available occasion.

Nothing to do with Traffic in the “traffic cop” sense of the word.

Vic Mackey said...

You got refused traffic attachment? In my force traffic love specials helping out, one sergeant even gave me his mobile number to call anytime I fancy going out with them.

ExtraSpecialCopper said...

Vic - sadly I have been refused several times, even after a few specials have been out with them.

The dog sgt wont let specials out with them now either due to "having too many requests" yet everytime I see a dog handler they are more than happy to have me along and ask if I have had any luck yet. Been trying for 1 and a half years to!

Traffic I will be trying again very soon - I keep pestering them

ianh6 said...

As a TPCSO I don't see what the problem is. The Traffic is more acuratly Transport. Our primary role is the buses - clearing obstructions, dealing with stroppy passengers and reassuring the travelling public. Our "community" are the travelling public, London wide. We enforce the Red Route, deal with broken down vehicles, road closures, traffic direction at ATS failures and accident scenes. We alos deal with shop lifters, bag snatchers, fraudulent disabled badges, report people for road tax and have our police officers to deal with all the stuff we find to rport on. My Team is mobile - currently 125cc scooters, soon to be 250cc and Fast Road trained. We have Police crewed Shoguns for towing and dealing with incidents. Any questions?