“Oh dear MH you do have your knickers in a twist. So I will keep it short. You are entitled to your opinion. I also know the facts and figures for ASB in Stoke on Trent and it is unfortunate I do not know your location as maybe I could have provided you with the full facts and figures ? I hope you don't let your hatred of PCSO's cloud your judgement too much and you do your bit to inform the police of the "yobs" within your community, so that appropriate action can be taken, maybe even consider joining a residents group where you can personally be informed of the good work that takes place.”

“You realise that these are proposals. This is usually mentioned at the tail end of an article. Some voter has probably mentioned to his councillor, the councillor thinks, This sounds good. Maybe I can put it forward as an idea of mine, I can attribute it if challenged. However knowing how slowly the cogs turn, and how fine they will grind, it is unlikely that any thing will be done. On the other hand it will look good to my constituents they will think that I care and am a good bloke to vote for.
This is how it works, to get any progress, you need some new blood, someone who is not comfortable with, and in, the system, who will say,"WHY" And will not accept that this is the way we have always done it. Some boat rocking is required.”

“Training should take all of five mins.
find them something useful to do,apart from laughing and joking with cheeky kids, who after a good laugh with " authority" feel better about carrying on in the manner they did previously.
now litter,often in the form of cigarette ends, and dog fouling is a major problem in Joke-on-Trent, the place is filthy,we are a good advertisment for what is considered "the worst" in this ,or any other,but a third world ,country. We are rapidly becoming a third world society and Joke-on-Trent is leading the country in this endeavor.
Look at the things that we are top in, Top in low life expectancy, stupid councillors, clean streets,top in employing the most expensive contractors, top in paying executives that leave us in the lurch.Just look at the recent fiascos, we are top in almost anything that is plain stupid.
This move may be a little controversial were the mock cops useful in the first place, it's not the sort of job to give to a police officer, but these boys and girls, yes. It is an offense to drop litter, to smoke in certain places, and to discard cigarette ends, and associated paraphernalia, Would it not be better if this were stopped, that the law was enforced?
Contact the council and complain about the litter problems and illegal smoking and they will tell you that IT IS being enforced, but to what degree?A token attempt is insufficient to have any effect. It's not hard to be noticed and make the litter louts think. Just, for example, and this would involve few logistical problems, station someone at the "filthy" 'bus station. A fine of £50 per dropped cigarette end, would in a few hours, pay for the enforcement of this law for weeks.
Will they do it, NO. It's too easy, and as the council want to remain in post,and know their electorate, that is the litter louts, and those that always vote labour,(but would not if you attack their filthy habit) they are only making a token effort to uphold the law, and in some way clean up our filthy city.
How many times will we make the headlines this year?Will central television have to tell us of the stupid activities of our council?Could it be possible that we will feature, nationally, for something that we can be proud off? I very much doubt it, not with the prevailing attitudes we can't get much lower in the civilisation stakes, we may have reached "the tipping point" already.
( A point some may have considered," how can those litter lout smokers pay a fine when they are on benefits, and although their rates,rents etc are paid, they may only have a little left for "takeaways" and cigarettes) In cases like this they should be, particularly at the moment, be clearing snow from the pavements. Generally doing a public service. Contribute something to the society that is maintaining you.”

“well jo.......you state,

''PCSO's have been a key partner in the battle to reduce anti social behaviour dramatically in your area''

i suggest that you may like to attend ''MY AREA '' as your beloved pcso have done little to nothing to reduce anti-social behaviour here. they have also done nothing to reduce the groups of yobs and large gangs that both roam and gather causing both trouble and also harrassment of locals especialy the elderly in MY area.

they may gather evidence for the police but so also do the neighbourhood watch and have been doing so for many years and are still doing so today.

as for your comment...

and as for training anon, ''I doubt it will be a two week holiday in Barbados,''

no one even suggested that it would be a trip to barbodos except for yourself, and i would imagine that the oinly reason you included that remark in your entry was in an attempt to ridicule the anon writer who mentioned the training period. either way it did not work and meerly showed your attempt to ridicule his comment as what it was.

you stated...

''PCSO's they are not designed to make arrests but have a different purpose within the family''

well jo, with the exception of walking around having free rides on public transport, which by the way is an offence within itself and also within the police discipline code, for being visible whilst wearing a police uniform but not actualy being a police officer? what exactly are they for as all of the areas that you have so far mentioned were all previously done by the police themselves whilst on patrol.?
the police officer on patrol would yes be visible, yes be approachable, yes be able to arrest offenders, yes be able to be a figure of reassurance, yes be able to gather local intelligence, yes be able to talk with people ..even the gangs of yobs that gather and as opposed to talking and lughing with them then walking away smiling whilst still leaving them in the same place continuing what they were doing which was the cause of the police attending in the first place they both would and also could either disperse them or arrest them.

you may have a thing about the conservation of the pcso system jo but as for myself and the majority of law abiding people of stoke on trent i would for one preffer to see a proper proffessional policde officer walking about in the police uniform as opposed to a poor lesser paid, lesser trained lesser empowered imitation.

by the way jo glad to see your comments were akin to our own as opposed to as you stated...
'' not just extracts from the Sun Newspaper ? ''”

“Its good to see that the comments below are intelligent and well researched and not just extracts from the Sun Newspaper ? PCSO's are not there to fill the space of police officers, or security officers or community wardens and I am glad to hear they are not as scary as your dog mh as the idea is that the community feel these officers are approachable, which is why they are so succeful in gathering intelligence from the public. PCSO's have a seperate role within the policing family. The policing family includes others roles such as crimes of scenes officers, analysts, intelligence officers . Just like PCSO's they are not designed to make arrests but have a different purpose within the family. Without all these roles the police would not operate effectivley.A PCSO's role is to be highly visible (hence walking around and riding the bus),to gather intelligence (hence chatting to the kids in your area) and to prevent crime not to make arrests, which is why they conduct talks to the community,offer advice and reassurance and provide security devices to protect you and your property.Anti Social Behaviour has been deemed by the public as their number one priority. Through my role I know that PCSO's have been a key partner in the battle to reduce anti social behaviour dramatically in your area. They have also been responsible for gathering evidence in order for the civil orders to be put in place to contol the trouble makers in your area. I am not sure why people are complaining about PCSO's giving out FPN's, if they can include this in to their role to make your area a better place to live then why not ? and as for training anon, I doubt it will be a two week holiday in Barbados, it will be an hours worth of dull training to go over the basics of how to fill in the form, where it has to go to etc. I would personally like to thank PCSO's for all their hardwork and hope they ignore this misguided nonsense.”

“i havnt stopped laughing for the past five minutes after reading this article.
ive honestly had tears in my eyes and given myself a sore throat from coughing whilst laughing.

so they can give tickets to people for letting their pooches doing their number twos on the verges, tickets for someone dropping a ciggy butt in the gutter, and even ticket someone for spraying paint on a wall.

but with the exception of the litteering type offences the rest are all arrestable offences and are dealt with in that way?

ooops sorry i forgot pcso dont have police powers of arrest even though they wear the uniform, wear the police caps, even wear the old type police cadetsw blue band around their caps, (bet the police authority made a saving bringing those blue bands back out of storage didnt they).

lets face it, the pcso, and no offence meant to any of them whatsoever as they are probably extreemly nice people once you get to know them, but the pcso have as much authority on the streets as my boxer dog, in fact the boxer prob has more due to the fact that it has more and bigger teeth.
special constable have as much power as a normal full time proffesional police officer, they all look alike to coin a phrase, but face facts, they realy are a complete dissapointment in my own area, as when you do call the police and they send one of them along all they do with the yobs is stand with them for a couple of minutes, have a laugh with them then walk away leaving them standing in the exact spot they were in in the first place continuing in their behaviour. sorry have no time whatsoever for them as i personaly believe that the money wasted on them would have been far better spent if they had put it in the bank towards getting more real police officers, instead of pr gimmicks.”

“Its about time someone thought of a practical use for these plastic plods. They walk around in 2's, hardly looking old enough to have left school. They seem as much practical use as the security guard in Morrisons. I suppose the uniform helps you ride free on the buses - as I've seen happen to the disgust of the paying passengers and the bemusement of the driver!”

“"That will include the creation of an economic crime unit, with the powers to investigate and prosecute serious offences, such as fly-tipping". Wow....I bet MI5 are worried eh?!
Why on earth are the police paying PCSO's to deal with dog muck and litter?
PCSO's should not be paid by police. They ought to be employed as council wardens and free up money for police forces to employ more real police officers.”

“Just another cash generating opportunity for the council it would seem.”

“The wording has cheered me up today, what sort of training do you need to spot dog fouling. I would love to be in the classes, prehaps the Govt could issue a TV advert for the public, has we become more like Orwells nightmare everyday, the Govt. could add the dog dirty to the other ads that tell us how to blow our noses etc.”