COMMUNITY support officers – known as “plastic policemen” – cost up to £1.2million for each crime they detect, it was revealed yesterday.Critics dismissed the officers, who do not even have powers of arrest, as an expensive replacement for real policemen.
Public spending campaigner Matthew Sinclair, director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “The whole programme seems to have been a device for politicians who know the public want a visible police force as a deterrent but don’t really think it works.
“It seems like both the law-abiding public and criminals know that they are just not the same as a full police officer.
“Visible policing is important, but the answer is having police officers on the beat rather than spending such a huge amount of time on paperwork, not cheap substitutes who can’t do the same job.”
Express
