The usage of Police Community Support Officers

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Dear Northumbria Police,

I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information.

Please may you provide me with an up to date list that details which discretionary powers are designated for Police Community Support Officers in your force if they are used within your force?

If you do utilise Police Community Support Officers, what are the advantages of having both Police Community Support Officers as well as regular Police Constables?

If you do not have Police Community Support Officers, what are the reasonings/advantages to this?

If it is not possible to provide the information requested due to the information exceeding the cost of compliance limits identified in Section 12, please provide advice and assistance, under the Section 16 obligations of the Act, as to how I can refine my request.

If you can identify any ways that my request could be refined I would be grateful for any further advice and assistance.

Yours faithfully,

James Thomas

Freedom of Information Mailbox, Northumbria Police

Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA)

 

Thank you for your email received today in which you make a request for
information that Northumbria Police may hold in accordance with the
Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

We are in the process of dealing with your request and a response should
be provided to you by 13/05/2020 which is in accordance with the
legislation.

 

Although every effort will be made to ensure a response is provided within
statutory deadlines, due to current circumstances delays may be
unavoidable.  We apologise for any inconvenience and will endeavour to
process your request as quickly as is practicable.

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

Information Management Unit

 

www.northumbria.police.uk | www.northumbria-pcc.gov.uk

 

'Northumbria Police will be outstanding in the service we provide'

 

'We will do this through protecting the Vulnerable, delivering quality
Investigations and applying Problem solving to everything we do to protect
the communities we serve.'

show quoted sections

Freedom of Information Mailbox, Northumbria Police

1 Attachment

 

Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom
of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')

 

Thank you for your email dated 10 April 2020 in which you made a request
for access to certain information which may be held by Northumbria Police.

 

As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of
access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority
(including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.

 

You asked:

 

1.     Please may you provide me with an up to date list that details
which discretionary powers are designated for Police Community Support
Officers in your force if they are used within your force?

 

2.     If you do utilise Police Community Support Officers, what are the
advantages of having both Police Community Support Officers as well as
regular Police Constables?

 

3.     If you do not have Police Community Support Officers, what are the
reasonings/advantages to this?

 

 

 

We have now had the opportunity to fully consider your request and I
provide a response for your attention.

 

Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted within
Northumbria Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested
is held by Northumbria Police.

 

I am able to disclose the located information to you as follows.

 

1.

Police Community Support Officers (PCSO)

1.     Issue fixed penalty notices for:

a.     Riding a pedal cycle on a footpath;

b.     Offences under dog control orders (Local Authority notices);

c.     Littering (Local Authority notices);

d.     Graffiti or fly-posting (Local Authority notices);

e.     A relevant byelaw offence (notices of a relevant authority); or

f.      A public nuisance offence listed below under Chapter 1, Part 1 of
the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 (known as Penalty Notices for
Disorder):

                                               i.     Being drunk in a
highway, other public place or licensed premises.

                                              ii.     Knowingly giving a
false alarm to a fire brigade.

                                             iii.     Trespassing on a
railway.

                                            iv.     Throwing stones etc.
at trains or other things on railways.

                                              v.     Sale of alcohol to a
person U18.

                                            vi.     Delivery of alcohol to
a person U18.

                                           vii.     Buy or attempt to buy
alcohol on behalf of U18.

                                          viii.     Sells or attempts to
sell to a person who is drunk.

                                            ix.     Disorderly behaviour
while drunk in a public place.

                                              x.     Wasting police time
or giving a false report.

                                            xi.     Using a public
telecommunications system in order to cause annoyance, inconvenience or
needless anxiety.

                                           xii.     Consumption of alcohol
in a designated public place.

                                          xiii.     Use of insulting or
abusive behaviour to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

                                          xiv.     Breach of fireworks
curfew.

 

2.     Require name and address of a person where there is reason to
believe that person has:

a.     committed an offence mentioned in (1) (a) - (f) above;

b.     committed an offence that appears to have caused injury, alarm or
distress to any other person, or damage or loss of any other person’s
property;

c.     failed to follow an instruction to disperse (Sec 32(2) ASB Act
2003);

d.     breached a relevant byelaw;

e.     committed an offence of begging (Sections 3 and 4 Vagrancy Act
1824); or

f.      been acting, or is acting, in an anti-social manner.

 

3.     Require a person to wait with him/her, for a period not exceeding
thirty minutes, for the arrival of a constable where a requirement to
provide a name and address under 2 (a)-(f) above or 9 below has been made
and the person has failed to comply or there are grounds for suspecting
that the information provided is false or in accurate. This power is also
referred to as the ‘power to detain’.

Note the power does not apply where the initial requirement relates to an
offence listed in 1 (f) (v), (vii) or (ix), above, where the offence is
believed to have been committed on licensed premises.

4.     Photograph persons away from a Police station.

 

5.     Require a person to stop drinking in a designated public area and
to surrender containers of alcohol.

 

6.     Search with consent for alcohol and tobacco.

 

7.     Require persons under 18 to surrender alcohol.

 

8.     Seize cigarettes and tobacco from persons who appear to be under

 

9.     Seize drugs and require name and address for possession of drugs.

 

10.  Enter property to save life or limb, or to prevent serious damage to
property.

 

11.  Seize vehicles used to cause alarm and distress.

 

12.  Carry out road check (as authorised by Supt or above) and stop
vehicles for that purpose.

 

13.  Remove abandoned vehicles.

 

14.  Stop cycles when reason to believe an offence of cycling on footpath
has been committed.

 

15.  Control traffic.

 

16.  Place and maintain traffic signs.

 

17.  Require name and address of driver or pedestrian who fails to follow
direction of PCSO.

 

18.  Enter off-licensed premises and when in the company of a constable,
on-licensed premises.

 

19.  Require a person to stop begging.

 

20.  Disperse groups and remove persons under 16 to their place of
residence (when authorised under Section 30 ASB Act 2003).

 

21.  Enforce relevant byelaws

 

22.  Disperse persons from a specified area and confiscate items in
accordance with s35 and 37 Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act
2014.

 

23.  Seize and retain items in accordance with s19 PACE 1984.

 

24.  Enforce certain licensing offences in accordance with the Serious
Organised Crime and Police Act 2005.

 

25.   Issue a fixed penalty notice for parking in a restricted area
outside schools.

 

 

2. PCSOs provide public facing and problem solving services in connection
with patrol, neighbourhood investigation, neighbourhood offenders and
co-ordination / promotion of services for under-represented groups, by
engaging with members of the community, both within police stations and
community environments, in order to support Neighbourhood Policing Teams
(NPT). They assist the Force greatly by increasing visible policing whilst
walking through communities.

 

3. N/A

 

 

Due to the different methods of recording information across 43 forces, a
specific response from one constabulary should not be seen as an
indication of what information could be supplied (within cost) by another.
Systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the
procedures used locally in capturing the data. For this reason responses
between forces may differ, and should not be used for comparative
purposes.

 

The information we have supplied to you is likely to contain intellectual
property rights of Northumbria Police. Your use of the information must be
strictly in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as
amended) or such other applicable legislation. In particular, you must not
re-use this information for any commercial purpose.

 

You may be interested to know that Northumbria Police routinely publish
information via the Disclosure Log. The aim of the Disclosure Log is to
promote openness and transparency by voluntarily placing information into
the public arena.

 

The Disclosure Log contains copies of some of the information that has
been disclosed by Northumbria Police in response to requests made under
the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

Whilst it is not possible to publish all responses we will endeavour to
publish those where we feel that the information disclosed is in the wider
public interest.

 

The Disclosure Log will be updated once responses have been sent to the
requester.

 

I have provided the relevant link below.

 

[1]https://beta.northumbria.police.uk/about...

 

How to complain

 

If you are unhappy with our decision or do not consider that we have
handled your request properly and we are unable to resolve this issue
informally, you are entitled to make a formal complaint to us under our
complaints procedure, attached.

 

If you are still unhappy after we have investigated your complaint and
reported to you the outcome, you may complain directly to the Information
Commissioner’s Office and request that they investigate to ascertain
whether we have dealt with your request in accordance with the Act.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

Michael Cleugh

Data Protection and Disclosure Advisor

 

[NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED]

 

'Northumbria Police will be outstanding in the service we provide'

'We will do this through protecting the Vulnerable, delivering quality
Investigations and applying Problem solving to everything we do to protect
the communities we serve.'

 

 

 

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