‘Keeping the Family Together’. Police Community Support Officers and the ‘Police Extended Family’ in London

Abstract

The Police Reform Act (2002) introduced police community support officers (PCSOs) into the service for the first time. PCSOs are uniformed staff who work under the direction and control of the chief officer, and who possess certain limited powers. The introduction of PCSOs has to be considered in the context of debates about security governance, since proponents see the initiative as a means of reconsolidating police sovereignty over policing. Obviously, in order for this sovereign project to be feasible, PCSOs have to be integrated successfully into their newly adopted ‘family’. This paper is concerned with a number of organisational issues relating to the Police Community Support Officers integration. It draws upon research into PCSOs carried out in two London boroughs (Westminster and Camden) between October 2002 and December 2003.

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