\u201cTHERE is no substitute for a warranted police officer,\u201d Essex Police Federation have said \u2013\u00a0as the Government considers giving police powers to volunteers and staff.<\/p>\n
Mark Smith, Chairman of Essex Police Federation, said he has \u201cconcerns about who these powers are given to, what the accountability is\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Mr Smith said: \u201cIt seems that the Government want everything but don\u2019t want to pay for it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The Home Office has launched a consultation that says it wants chief officers to have the ability to bestow any police power on volunteers \u2013\u00a0outside a reserved list of nine \u2013 including arrest and stop and search.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Mr Smith added: \u201cI\u2019m not sure what the Government want. I am very confused about what the Government want policing to look like in this country.\u00a0 I\u2019m very, very concerned about who will be given powers, how they will be used, how they will be accountable, and what flexibility there is.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cIs it going to be cut and dry with these people, a bit like maybe parking tickets etc? Whereas there\u2019s discretion, there\u2019s verbal communications with police officers and how our powers are used.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cJust because you have the power doesn\u2019t mean you have to use it. I think there are dangers ahead and it\u2019s not the service the public should be getting.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Does Mr Smith think this is an excuse to offer some work to more private companies?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a concern that\u2019s been raised right from the very start of the spending reviews and the cuts,\u201d said Mr Smith. \u201cWe go back to the accountability of those private companies. Who are they accountable to, the shareholders or the public?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cI have grave concerns over accountability. You can\u2019t get any more accountable than a police officer in this country. Everybody is scrutinising police officers, we\u2019re accountable to everybody. Private companies will be accountable to their shareholders.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cTHERE is no substitute for a warranted police officer,\u201d Essex Police Federation have said \u2013\u00a0as the Government considers giving police powers to volunteers and staff. Mark Smith, Chairman of Essex\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2067,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2273"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2274,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273\/revisions\/2274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}