January 19, 2006: New Powers for Community Support Officers

The Home Office has announced a robust set of standard powers for Community Support Officers (CSOs). At present the powers available to CSOs vary from police force to police force, which can cause misunderstanding their role. There are currently over 6300 CSOs across England and Wales. The Government has made a commitment to increase this to 24,000 by 2008.

Under the Police Reform Act 2002 Chief Constables have the power to designate CSOs from a range of powers set out in Schedule 4 to that Act. At present, this means that CSOs in different forces can be designated with some of the available powers, all of the powers, or occasionally none of the powers. The proposed standard set will ensure that CSOs in all areas have the powers necessary to deal with issues they are likely to encounter on the street while leaving the designation of a number of powers to the discretion of Chief Officers.

In addition to the standard set of powers, it is proposed to extend the power to take part in truancy sweeps to CSOs. The Government believes that CSOs are well placed to undertake this activity given their local knowledge of children in their area. This was one of a number of measures outlined recently as part of the Government's Respect Action plan designed to combat the causes of anti-social behaviour and promote respect in society.

Home Office Minister Hazel Blears said:

'Community Support Officers are valuable members of the police family and provide excellent support to local communities. They have been well received by the public and been effective in tackling low-level crime, disorder and anti-social behaviour as well as helping to restore respect in local communities.

'Introducing a standard set of robust powers for CSOs will allow them to contribute fully to neighbourhood policing and handle more issues on-the-spot, without recourse to a police constable. It will also help the public understand exactly what CSOs can do, and free up more police time to deal with serious offences.

'By including a number of important powers - such as the power to issue a fixed penalty notice for littering or graffiti, or to confiscate drugs or alcohol - we are ensuring that CSOs have the tools to deal effectively with low level crime and anti-social behaviour.”

Proposals for the standard set of powers and the additional power will be brought before Parliament in forthcoming legislation.