Volunteers will be ‘bobbies on the cheap’

VOLUNTEERS will be deployed as counterterror officers in a controversial new scheme which has prompted accusations of policing on the cheap.

Twenty Special Constables will work with Scotland Yard’s elite SO15 unit – just one of dozens of examples uncovered by The Mail on Sunday of unpaid personnel being recruited south of the Border. The counterterror volunteers will help with major incident investigations and also on the highly sensitive Prevent scheme, which combats radicalisation.

Other law-and-order projects involve various groups. Dog walkers and cyclists will wear uniforms and gather intelligence for police in Kent. The Policing Community Volunteers will have the power to request the name and address of those committing anti-social behaviour; to enter premises to save life and/or prevent serious damage; and some minor traffic control powers.

Children are being used to spot speeding motorists and go on night-time patrols. The ‘Mini Police’ project for those aged nine to 11 was started by Durham Constabulary and is now being taken up elsewhere.

Even prostitutes are being recruited to work with police in Northumbria to help keep other sex workers safe. They will keep in touch with vulnerable women who would normally stay out of the way of officers.

Criminals and soldiers who have been court-martialled are to be allowed to work for police in Cheshire. The force is lowering its vetting requirements for volunteers in the hope it will widen the pool of recruits. Critics say the growing number of volunteers is simply an attempt to disguise huge cuts to police strength. The number of frontline officers in England and Wales is at its lowest level in 30 years, despite rising crime. Official figures show there are at present about 38,000 volunteers in policing, including 11,000 teenage cadets and 16,000 Special Constables, who are unpaid and work part-time but have full policing powers. Chief constables have set up a national Citizens In Policing strategy to boost these numbers. As part of this plan, they have been given £545,000 from a Home Office innovation fund to deliver 19 pilot projects across England and Wales.

North Yorkshire Chief Constable Dave Jones said: ‘The projects being trialled are fine examples of how volunteers can bring experience and insight from other walks of life to complement, rather than replace, the work done by paid employees.’

But Calum Macleod, new chairman of the Police Federation that represents rank and file officers, said: ‘This is yet another step towards policing on the cheap and a further indication money is being put before safety and a properly resourced police service.

‘Special Constables provide a valuable service but should not replace experienced officers in these hare-brained schemes.’

‘Money is being put before safety’