We ask locals whether they think Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) help prevent crime and improve safety, or if the focus should be on regular police officers with full powers instead.
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00:00Yes, I think they do. I think the visibility of community support officers on the street
00:04is really important to give people a sense of safety and police presence, and particularly
00:10where budgets are squeezed, I can see that that's got a sensible way for local authorities
00:17and police services to spend their money.
00:21I don't think the community officers really do anything, really. You don't see them around
00:25Birmingham at all. You don't see them in Wolverhampton at all. And I've been speaking to my parents,
00:29recently, actually, about the fact that there's loads of police that like to stand in the
00:34train station and get students for not paying their tickets. But if they actually stepped
00:40out of the train station, I'm sure they'd actually find some crime in Wolverhampton.
00:44I think it's natural that because of the cost of running and training paramedics, police,
00:51fire brigade, all these kind of services, you don't necessarily need to have the full
00:57trained person at every event.