PCSOs

This current government's insistence that forces recruit PCSOs rather than police officers is not popular within the ranks - it is seen as a 'dumbing down' or a weakening of the police. After all, PCSOs are not trained or empowered to the same degree as officers, and starting salaries for PCSOs are only marginally less that those of PCs. This may gradually change. There are suggestions that PCSOs may be given powers of arrest, batons and CS sprays. The original proposal that they operate as the eyes and ears of the police is being altered to provide police on the cheap - except they're not really that cheap. Certainly they are not recruited or trained to the same standards as PCs, so cost savings are made there...

It is possible that the unstated goal is to create a three-tiered European system of law enforcement - a national body for investigating serious and organized crime, regional forces to deal with other offences and local teams of uniformed officers to patrol the streets.