SPECIALS
AN URGENT WARNING
Outgoing Special Constabulary Lead Nicky Ryan and Deputy Secretary Gemma Fox make police staff who are special constables aware of the serious risks when flipping roles
There are many roles previously undertaken by warranted officers that are now able to be carried out by police support staff with designated powers by chief constables.
These include roles such as police community support officer (PCSO), investigative support officer, custody detention officer, field intelligence officer – to name but a few. The Special
barred from joining the Special Constabulary to avoid a conflict of interest. PCSO is one of the excluded professions on the list. Police Federation of England and
Wales (PFEW) recently retired Special Constabulary Lead Nicky Ryan said: “As part of PFEW’s work to support specials,
revert minutes later to their support staff role and continue their shift.” PFEW Deputy Secretary Gemma Fox
said: “We understand this is done with the best of intentions and to get ‘the job done’ – however there are several risks in doing this.
Constabulary eligibility criteria is set out in the College of Policing Special Constabulary Policy Manual for force practitioners dated 2019 and NPIA Special Constables: Eligibility for Recruitment, dated 2011. Some of the roles now undertaken by civilian police staff were not even in existence when the criteria was written. There are a number of roles explicitly
26 | POLICE | DECEMBER | 2023
“Should the matter become an issue with the Professional Standards Department, there would be some conflict as to who would support the member.”
it has been made aware of a practice which we have named ‘flipping’. This is where a person who is employed in a support staff role and is on duty in that support staff role, puts themselves on duty into their SC role to utilise a power (such as arrest or seizure) which they don’t have in a daytime role, only to
“It could put any prosecution into jeopardy and become a point of contest within a case (are you on duty in your support staff role or SC role). “Should the matter become
an issue with the Professional Standards Department, there would be some conflict as to
who would support the member. “There is also the ongoing issue of short staffing and lack of resources within forces. The practice of flipping roles keeps things ticking over, but it is merely a sticking plaster and does not resolve the fundamental problems as it obscures them.”
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