Quite strange, actually. I think it was some sort of publicity appearance for the local news. Something about putting more officers on the streets. I suppose I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. I certainly feel safer when I'm walking the girls home from school and there's a pair of officers nearby; but at the same time, I don't see how the council could possibly ever put enough officers around to curb the drug trade and the disorderly weekend behavior. They just end up pushing the dealers to different areas or making them wait until the officers go off duty. Maybe their hope is to simply push undesirable behavior into areas and times when most people who aren't involved in such things wouldn't be around. Which is an interesting way of looking at policing that I'd never thought about. Instead of trying to 'catch the bad guys' - you just hold them at bay long enough for ordinary people to finish their business, then you let them roam free.
But who knows? I just live here, and probably the police are doing a whole lot more than I realize. In any case, I certainly appreciate having them around; they've got a tough job, no matter how many of them there are.
1 comment:
Dan, they aren't real Police, the are Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs)commonly referred to as 'plastic police', they have very limited power, i do believe that traffic wardens have more power than they do.
Their primary purpose is to offer greater public reassurance. For example; reporting vandalism or damaged street furniture, reporting suspicious activity; providing crime prevention advice, deterring juvenile nuisance and visiting victims of crime. Basically things duties any citizen can do in there community. Adam
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