Volunteers are to be deployed as counter-terror officers in a controversial new scheme which has prompted accusations of policing on the cheap.
Twenty Special Constables will work with Scotland Yard’s elite SO15 unit – just one of dozens of examples uncovered by The Mail on Sunday of unpaid personnel being recruited.
The counter-terror volunteers will help with major incident investigations and also on the highly sensitive Prevent scheme, which combats radicalisation. Other law-and-order projects – most of which are funded by the Home Office – involving members of the public include:
- Prostitutes being ‘engaged as volunteers’ to provide safety advice to other sex workers;
- Criminals, bankrupts and those who have committed ‘military misdemeanours’ being allowed to help out police forces;
- Children joining uniformed ‘Mini Police’ teams to spot speeding motorists and look out for yobs;
- Dog walkers and cyclists ‘gathering intelligence’ for police.
Volunteers are to be deployed as counter-terror officers under a new scheme, prompting accusations of policing on the cheap (Pictured: Thetford Police Cadets)
The revelations come after this newspaper revealed last month how a ‘Dad’s Army’ of unpaid border guards will be used to monitor marinas, harbours and airfields.
Critics say that the growing number of volunteers is simply an attempt to disguise huge cuts to police strength. The number of frontline officers is at its lowest level in 30 years, despite rising crime.
Official figures show there are currently about 38,000 volunteers in policing, including 11,000 teenage cadets and 16,000 Special Constables, who are unpaid and work part-time but have full policing powers.
Chief constables have set up a national ‘Citizens In Policing’ strategy to boost these numbers and ‘increase the resources available to achieve social goals’ and ‘help reduce demands on public services’.
As part of this plan, they have been given £545,000 from a Home Office innovation fund to deliver 19 pilot projects across England and Wales.
This includes the first-ever scheme ‘to place Special Constables in the counter-terrorism fields of policing, testing specifically roles in Prevent and major incident investigation’.
Documents seen by this newspaper show it will examine ‘a previously unexplored area of specialism for Special Constables and potentially longer term for volunteers with powers’.
It admits it will ‘test cultural acceptance in one of the most sensitive areas of policing’.
Initially, the Met will recruit 20 counter-terror specialists from the existing ranks of Specials, but will expand the team if it is deemed a success.
Recruitment, vetting and training starts next month and the Specials will start work on major incident investigation and on Prevent – working on stopping vulnerable people becoming radicalised – from March. Chief constables will also consider giving Specials the power to carry Tasers this year.
North Yorkshire Chief Constable Dave Jones (pictured) defended the project saying it is a ‘fine example’ of volunteers complementing work done by paid employees
North Yorkshire Chief Constable Dave Jones insisted last night: ‘The projects being trialled are fine examples of how volunteers can bring experience and insight from other walks of life to complement, rather than replace, the work done by paid employees.’
But Calum Macleod, new chairman of the Police Federation that represents rank-and-file officers, said: ‘This is yet another step towards policing on the cheap, and a further indication that money is being put before safety and a properly resourced police service.
‘Special Constables provide a valuable service but they should never replace experienced officers in these hare-brained schemes.’
Former Special Branch detective Chris Hobbs added: ‘This is a long way from being ideal, but has been forced on the Met because of cuts – they have a massive shortage of detectives. I would hope volunteers will be vetted properly.’
Other plans include sending out children to join uniformed ‘Mini Police’ teams to spot speeding motorists and look out for yobs (Pictured: Durham Constabulary’s Mini Police force)
Children go on patrol to catch speeding drivers
Children are being used to spot speeding motorists and go on night-time patrols.
The ‘Mini Police’ project for those aged nine to 11 was started by Durham Constabulary and is now being taken up across the country. It gives uniforms to pupils in ‘economically deprived areas’ and invites them to special events.
The idea, according to official documents, is that ‘vulnerable children’ will be given a ‘positive experience of policing’ and ‘get involved in the local community’.
But they can also ‘support subtle educational interventions to tackle Serious Organised Crime’ and ‘gun and gang crime’.
Units of the Mini Police often go out on ‘community speed watch’ duty, monitoring passing motorists on busy roads.
Some are equipped with speed guns while others hold up digital boards alerting drivers that they are going too fast.
The Home Office is contributing £8,000 to an academic assessment of Mini Police, described as ‘the largest-scale primary school “youth association” delivery model ever led by UK policing’.
In Norfolk, where all 150 Police Community Support Officers are being axed to save money, police have been accused of putting teenagers at risk in a similar scheme.
Acting Inspector Mick Andrew posted online a photo of ten youngsters in high-vis jackets, with the caption: ‘Thetford Police Cadets heading out on [anti-social behaviour] patrols of the town centre.’
It prompted an incredulous response on Twitter, with solicitor Nicholas Diable warning: ‘Even if they’re tagging along it strikes me that a situation could quickly get out of hand and then you’ve got a violent situation with PCs having to defend the kids they’re responsible for… An exceptionally bad plan.’
A Norfolk Police spokesman said: ‘All relevant risk assessments were carried out.’
Dog walkers and cyclists will wear uniforms and gather intelligence for police in Kent after becoming Policing Community Volunteers