Meet the community bobbies

11:20am Wednesday 13th July 2005

POLICE Community Support Officers (PCSOs) have been pounding the beat in Beckenham for a year. But what difference have they really made to life in the community? Reporter Jolene Hill talks to two PCSOs about foiling shoplifters, suppressing youth disorder and leaping onto buses to detain suspects ...

Beckenham-based bobbies Ross Neve and Simon Sproston spend most of their 10-hour shifts walking the streets.

Their role, they say, is to make themselves visible to residents, gather intelligence and deal with low-level crime and nuisance problems.

And they claim they are doing a good job as the eyes and ears of the police force but attention is sometimes drawn to the powers they lack.

PCSO Sproston said: "We can't arrest people and youths often taunt us because of that.

"But what they don't realise is we do have powers to detain them."

The officers cannot slap the cuffs on but are in constant contact with a control room and police patrols across Bromley, so if the need arises an arrest can be made in minutes. PCSOs describe it as like an advanced citizen's arrest.

PCSOs Neve and Sproston work Beckenham in a Safer Neighbourhood Team, with two other PCSOs, four constables and one sergeant.

When the team first began patrolling the streets in July last year, around the same time Beckenham Police Station opened, people were a bit bewildered.

A former law student, PCSO Neve said: "Around 90 per cent of people thought we were traffic wardens. Now the situation is reversed but we do get asked for directions a lot."

Their presence in the town over the past 12 months has helped them get to know Beckenham's shopkeepers and customers, who in turn make shoplifters known to them. Through this network many petty criminals have been caught.

PCSO Sproston said: "We know the prolific ones and we can use our stop-and-account powers to ask them for identification and find out what they've been doing, then detain them if needs be."

The 30-year-old says intelligence-gathering helps control the "nightmare" situation on one of Beckenham's estates caused by the anti-social behaviour of two youths.

By walking the streets and visiting people in their homes the team soon got to know the youths by sight.

Croydon-resident PCSO Sproston said: "Before Christmas the situation was out of control. Now the youths are on curfew and have bail conditions. Before PCSOs came along, the disturbance would have gone unreported or people would have called 999 and the yobs would have disappeared by the time emergency services arrived."

Both officers will leave Beckenham to train for the Met Police in September but as there is now a waiting list to become a PCSO they have no doubt their shoes will be filled quickly.

The pair, who work shifts and are paid a salary, both recommended the job and PCSO Neve says it has its thrilling moments.

Just two weeks ago, the 22-year-old chased two suspects across a road onto a bus and detained the suspects until police arrived.

He was also called to rescue a footballer who was handcuffed and stripped to a T-shirt and underwear after a match and left to wander along the High Street.

He added: "That's the best thing. Every day is different."

PCSOs have the authority to:

• Detain suspects using reasonable force for up to 30 minutes.

• Dispose of alcohol consumed in public places.

• Seize tobacco from young people.

• Request names and addresses from people acting in an anti-social way.

• Enter a building to save lives or prevent serious damage to property.

• Carry out road checks and stop vehicles.

• Seize vehicles in certain circumstances.

• Authorise removal of abandoned vehicles.

• Stop and search vehicles and belongings in areas authorised under the Terrorism Act 2000.

• Issue Fixed Penalty Notices to people for certain offences such as dropping litter or allowing dogs to foul pavements.

• For more information visit the PCSO website. Click here