PC Joe Public: Now YOU can go on the beat: Unprecedented police shake-up will see unpaid civilians patrol with bobbies

By James Slack

In the biggest shake-up of policing for 50 years, ministers want the public to patrol alongside beat bobbies.

They also intend to recruit up to 50,000 extra special constables to flood crime-plagued neighbourhoods with an army of volunteers.

And villages will be protected by a new breed of ‘police reservists’, modelled on part-time firemen and the Territorial Army.
Overhaul: Theresa May says the reforms will make forces more responsive and end the ‘job for life’ culture

The coalition government yesterday set out plans for communities to ‘reconnect’ with police forces which have disappeared behind their desks, engulfed by a flood of red tape.

But the radical reforms are already being dismissed by Labour as ‘policing on the cheap’ and a fig leaf for cuts in fully sworn officers.

Home Secretary Theresa May said her plans were ‘the most radical reforms to policing in at least 50 years’. She also announced:

• The introduction of directly-elected police commissioners with the power to sack chief constables, along with the prospect of elected U.S.-style prosecutors
• The creation of a National Crime Agency to ‘tackle organised crime and protect our borders’
• Regular beat meetings in supermarkets and old people’s homes to hold officers to account
• ‘Virtual’ get-togethers on social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter
• A bonfire of health and safety regulations that tie police in red tape

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