I have seen this before but it has now been extended and there is more of them. I find this the most funny thing ever because it is exactly my experience of them. The accent too is just completly spot on.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VPs3cF8vOI
It was actuallly a proper copper which first sent me this link a few years ago.
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Great stuff.
A couple of years back there was a disturbance and a house a couple of doors down from us. Being nosey, I asked a police officer what had happened, but he wouldn't tell me.
A bit later they put a couple of PCSOs guarding the door. I made them a cup of tea, and got all the details...
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Not real at all...those CSOs aren't sat in the Office!
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...Not real at all...those CSOs aren't sat in the Office!...
The only uniforms I see patrolling around here are CPSOs, so I reckon the real coppers must be the ones sat in the station, assuming we've got any left.
Apart from dinner time, when you see one or two going for a meeting with Pc Joe Coral.
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Hehe! Quite watch-able was that, I used to be 'in films' not many ppl know that :-)
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It is quite professional, I love the way they managed to get the GMP accent (there is one) competly spot on too. It is basically the manc accent but with a very different dielect.
You see them all round where I live, yesterday they were sat on a table outside the library putting stickers on bikes. I had mine done but I had the feeling I was about the only visitor all day and it didn't seem good value for the tax payers money.
My sister works for the police (not a copper) and also thinks they are a waste of time as they have no powers and the general public realise that.
I remember I got stopped by once because I almost fit the description of somebody they were after. They asked where I was the day before and I told them Conwy. We then spoke for about half an hour about different caravan parks in North Wales.
At least they are very good at fining people for dropping fag buts.
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I phoned the local nick when I came across a community of tents hidden from view except to someone like moi who 'boldly goes' and I thought it would be a good idea if the BiB where aware of their presence (they were!)
The next day I was cutting my grass and Milo did his job when 2 coppers came a'calling,
They were responding to my phone call and I was very impressed by their attitude & friendliness but,
totally useless I would imagine - in certain situations such as those portrayed in that film :)
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My sister works for the police (not a copper) and also thinks they are a
waste of time as they have no powers and the general public realise that.
They don't have any powers because the labour government had to water down the original proposals to appease powerful pressure from the police unions. If they were empowered to make arrests PCSO's could indeed carry out most of the basic functions of a police constable at a considerable saving to the public purse.
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It was considered a sport when you spotted a PCSO's (I thought iffy was on some Star Wars thing with C3PO ! :-) ) statement, to automatically them in a not guilty plea, it used to brighten up an otherwise dull day, you could rn rings around them as they lacked the guile and cunning of sworn Officers.
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...(I thought iffy was on some Star Wars thing with C3PO ! :-) )...
I find it increasingly easy to get muddled these days.
CPSO: Cheap Police Support Officer.
To put t'other side, the real coppers I have spoken to have generally welcomed the, er, PCSOs.
I think they had one or two would-be Robocops, but once they were weeded out, the PCSOs have come in handy for the likes of scene preservation and crowd control.
As far as I can make out, a similar situation exists with the HATOs - Highways Agency Transport Officers - I think that's what they're called.
The few real traffic cops we have left have found the HATOs to be a help.
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I was talking to the other half about this - apparently there was a survey done on "use of force" by PCSOs in her Force, they're equipped with Handcuffs, stab vests here and trained to use Batons (there is a good reason for that) but not issued with them. The result of the survey suggested that at there was a cluster of them that wanted Tasers as well.........no mention of knives though.
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They should just issue them with .45 automatics and have done with it, as they do in Mexico and parts of the US.
Someone once told me that in Mexico in the fifties, drunken policemen opening fire in bars were one of the main threats to life and limb.
Perhaps if we tried to be a bit more like Mexico we would do better in international football.
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>> PCSO They don't have any powers
They do have powers that could be effectively used under the correct circumstances (the same as the rest of us).
www.protectingyourself.co.uk/civil-powers-of-arrest.html
Etc., etc., etc.
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Mitchell and Webb have done a similar run of sketches about a Police Officer with utter disdain for his PSCO partner. Won't link directly to them because there's lots of very fruity language to get the point across:
www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mitchell+and+webb+police&aq=f
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There's some good ones and some very bad ones. They have nowhere near the powers (or training) of a sworn Officer. They aren't as 'cheap' as you think. They also can't work after 10pm, shouldn't be used for scene preservation (but often are), shouldn't be put in positions of conflict and can't do much else really. I'd rather have five Police Officers instead of ten PCSOs.
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They cost 2/3rd as much as a fully sworn Officer.
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There are usually a couple, sometimes more, outside Ladbroke Grove tube station at busy times. Most of the police foot patrols in the neighbourhood are PCSOs. I guess they are thought to have a calming effect on the pub and betting shop loungers, the throng at the bus stop under the motorway and the minicab drivers and groups of whippernappers usually hanging about there.
Some of these rentafuzz take themselves seriously and come on grim, but others strike the right note by being pleasant and personable. I don't really see the need for a two-tier police force though. It's not even as if a new sworn copper is necessarily all that well-trained or authoritative after all, and as we know they too are sometimes capable of refusing to rescue a drowning child on the ground that they might get wet or they haven't got their swimming badge.
If as mlc suggests the PCSOs are quite limited in their powers and not all that cheap, then they must be a gimmick to increase perceived police numbers. Like cardboard cutout patrol cars in motorway laybys.
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and as we know they too are sometimes capable of refusing to rescue a drowning child on the ground that they might get
>> wet or they haven't got their swimming badge.
I'm afraid the facts of that particular case got erased once the Daily Mail put their take on it. The twisted version then became 'fact'. The two PCSOs that attended that incident had no chance of ever locating that child.
If they'd refused to help someone struggling in the water, they'd have deserved the criticism. That certainly wasn't the case.
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...If they'd refused to help someone struggling in the water, they'd have deserved the criticism. That certainly wasn't the case...
No sign of anyone struggling in the water when they arrived, the inquest heard.
So jump in where to rescue what?
Having said that, the PCSOs did themselves no favours by refusing to give evidence at the inquest.
I wasn't there, but the usual reason is risk of self-incrimination....
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/7006412.stm
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Cases like that are obvious media fodder. But there have been several of them.
You don't have to think all police officers are anything like that, but once you've met a few you know damn well that some are. They are like other human categories, quite variable.
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>>They also can't work after 10pm>>
Perhaps it's slightly different in my area, but on the occasions I've seen PSCOs in action they have proved surprisingly efficient and professional.
They must certainly work after 10pm because they are often on my last bus (which leaves the starting point at 11pm) on their way back to report off duty.
I recall that two or three years ago Granada TV did a series on the work of PSCOs in Preston and their value was clear to see.
That's a viewpoint from someone who was very sceptical about their potential when they were first introduced some years ago.
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GMP release a film to show the work of PSCOs ha - SteelSpark
