pcso worth the money ?
Discussion
PCSO let boy drown
in this case no. Lets have some sense and a return to proper officers on the streets
who can actually do things rather than be pen pushers most of the shift
in this case no. Lets have some sense and a return to proper officers on the streets
who can actually do things rather than be pen pushers most of the shift
To be honest I've never really understood the benefits of having these quasi-officers. I know that they are cheaper than paying a proper officer. However given that they operate differently from normal police officers there will be additional costs associated with set up, training etc etc. Also there has to be an argument which says that if these employees were up to the standard of real officers then that's what they would be ie we are accepting a lower standard of individual than is required to be a police officer.
In short if a real Police Officer costs £X per year and one of these quasi-officers costs 80% of £X per year then I wonder if we might be better off by replacing every 100 of the latter with 80 of the former.
In short if a real Police Officer costs £X per year and one of these quasi-officers costs 80% of £X per year then I wonder if we might be better off by replacing every 100 of the latter with 80 of the former.
in Health and Safety gone mad!where I live we have PCSO's, Parking Enforcement officers. In the next county they have PCSO's and Uniformed Wardens (who ride round in vans).
I shudder to think of the extra cost when it comes to vehicles, uniforms, training, management, reporting structures, etc..
I've learned that Parking Enforcement Officers can only deal with vehicles on a single or double yellow line. So dangerous parking needs to be deatl with by a PC.
Just scrap the lot and let us have 3/4 of the numbers as PC's who can deal with pretty much any sort of problem.
I shudder to think of the extra cost when it comes to vehicles, uniforms, training, management, reporting structures, etc..
I've learned that Parking Enforcement Officers can only deal with vehicles on a single or double yellow line. So dangerous parking needs to be deatl with by a PC.
Just scrap the lot and let us have 3/4 of the numbers as PC's who can deal with pretty much any sort of problem.
Bing o said:
esselte said:
Bing o said:
odyssey2200 said:
They can bloody swim can't they?
Maybe they couldn't? 
.
But then if you can't swim you'd try and do something wouldn't you? Find some sort of improvised flotation device of something you could use to reach them. You wouldn't just stand there with your thumb up your arse!
MilnerR said:
Bing o said:
esselte said:
Bing o said:
odyssey2200 said:
They can bloody swim can't they?
Maybe they couldn't? .
But then if you can't swim you'd try and do something wouldn't you? Find some sort of improvised flotation device of something you could use to reach them. You wouldn't just stand there with your thumb up your arse!
That story, unfortunately, does not surprise me at all. A friend of mine is a PCSO. They are in fact the most pointless waste of money ever. They are given naff all training or equipment, told if there is anything dangerous the first thing to do is make sure they're safe, then call for back up and not get involved. He once spent an entire shift stood outside a house waiting for a wanted drug dealer who was thought to be hiding there to emerge. He was told if/when he did, not to approach him, simply call for backup and they would come and arrest the guy! A PCSO has no more powers of arrest than you or I and will actually get reprimanded if they attempt it as they could be endangering themselves.
The PCSO is simply a halfbaked response to pressure to be seen to put more officers on the street.
So no, they are not worth the money.
The PCSO is simply a halfbaked response to pressure to be seen to put more officers on the street.
So no, they are not worth the money.
MilnerR said:
Bing o said:
esselte said:
Bing o said:
odyssey2200 said:
They can bloody swim can't they?
Maybe they couldn't? .
But then if you can't swim you'd try and do something wouldn't you? Find some sort of improvised flotation device of something you could use to reach them. You wouldn't just stand there with your thumb up your arse!
Bing o said:
He wasn't visible when they arrived (from the report anyway)
Tough call for them. If the boy was not visible, then they would not have been able to do much at that point other than jump in and grope around in the vain hope they would find him.By jumping into the water, they could have made things worse by moving the boy further away if the water was dirty or getting into difficulty themselves.
However, they could have if they were lucky, have found him and dragged him out.
We do not know if the PCSO's were swimmers or trained in life saving.
Very sad for all involved.
I wonder if the parents knew that their children of 10 and under were playing near water that was a potential hazard to their lives?
Seems to be a growing factor in child disappearance, where parents leave them to their own devices and then discover after they have had no control over the situations their children are in when something bad happens, find an excuse to blame someone else for the fact!
PCSO's have a specific role. It does not involve what most people would consider practical police work. That said though they are capable of using initiative and it would appear that standing and looking at a pond where a boy was out of sight under the water did not spark a moment of initiative to try and get him out!
Edited by Mg6b on Friday 21st September 13:54
Can we have a sticky thread for examples of how this country is going to the dogs, only i'm struggling to keep track. Truly beggars belief it really does. What makes it even worse is the fact they weren't at the hearing to give their version of events. Clearly there were too many cars to put tickets on, or maybe they hadn't been trained in how to climb the steps and were waiting for back up....
johnnywb said:
Clearly there were too many cars to put tickets on, or maybe they hadn't been trained in how to climb the steps and were waiting for back up....
Can always find the time to train in the use of Speed Cameras...This story makes me sick, because simple humanity would pursuade someone to consider a rescue, let alone when one is in a "job" tasked with protecting the public.
johnnywb said:
Can we have a sticky thread for examples of how this country is going to the dogs, only i'm struggling to keep track. Truly beggars belief it really does. What makes it even worse is the fact they weren't at the hearing to give their version of events. Clearly there were too many cars to put tickets on, or maybe they hadn't been trained in how to climb the steps and were waiting for back up....
I'd like the parents to have explained what their kids were doing playing unattended near deep water first and foremost.If you are going to defer your child's safety to someone else, don't be surprised when something bad happens.
OK, this is the Fire Brigade, but you get this sort of thing:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article15...
and I remember a Fire Officer drowning in Gtr Manchester a few years ago and there was hell to play. I think his family sued the fire service.
The mother of the lad in this case was on TV at lunchtime - talk about rough. And she was demanding 'justice' - now I wonder what that could mean?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article15...
and I remember a Fire Officer drowning in Gtr Manchester a few years ago and there was hell to play. I think his family sued the fire service.
The mother of the lad in this case was on TV at lunchtime - talk about rough. And she was demanding 'justice' - now I wonder what that could mean?
Edited by Deva Link on Friday 21st September 14:34
johnnywb said:
Can we have a sticky thread for examples of how this country is going to the dogs, only i'm struggling to keep track. Truly beggars belief it really does. What makes it even worse is the fact they weren't at the hearing to give their version of events. Clearly there were too many cars to put tickets on, or maybe they hadn't been trained in how to climb the steps and were waiting for back up....
what a load of reactionary tosh...they arrived, he wasn't visible. NOT as reported stood around watching him drown...
B
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