Councillors in the Staffordshire Moorlands have grilled a senior police officer over controversial changes to neighbourhood policing.

Staffordshire Police has this week introduced new shift patterns for its police community support officers (PCSOs), which will see fewer on duty after 7pm.

The force said the move will allow more PCSOs to be deployed during periods of peak demand in the day, but critics feared it could leave some communities more vulnerable to crime in the evenings.

Concerns have also been raised about expanding PCSO duties to include the taking of statements.

Chief Inspector Cliff Goodwin explained the reasons for the changes to scrutiny committee members at Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, saying they would lead to a better service for the public.

But members of the community overview and scrutiny panel said they were worried that some communities in the Moorlands could be left with just one PCSO on duty after 7pm.

Ch Insp Goodwin showed the panel a heat map diagram that illustrated how demand on Staffordshire Police peaked between 1pm and 4pm.

He said: "From today, revised hours have come into effect. That means a core window from 10am to 7pm at peak staffing, with some slight reductions either side, to give us that ability to have maximum presence during our peak demand.

advertisement

"We're also upskilling our PCSOs so they're going to be trained to take witness statements from the point of contact. Currently our PCSOs attend an incident and then sometimes a separate officer has to follow through afterwards to take statements. That means delays, a risk of lost evidence and a worse experience for victims.

"So we believe that this is going to improve, at times, the response from the police and be a better result for victims."

Biddulph East councillor Jill Salt quizzed Ch Insp Goodwin on how many PCSOs would now be based in Biddulph after 7pm. He said it would depend on the day of the week and the time of the year, but Cllr Salt said she believed it could be as few as one PCSO.

Cllr Salt said: "This is worrying, especially if that one is then lent out to take a statement because someone couldn't do it during the day. It is worrying that only one PCSO could be on duty in my community at 7pm on a Tuesday evening."

Cllr Salt also questioned whether the reason for the PCSO changes had been operational or the need to save £700,000. But she acknowledged that this question would be better directed at Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Ben Adams.

Committee members asked for more detailed information on how demand changes during the day, including crime types and the ages of perpetrators. They said that in many parts of the Moorlands, issues with anti-social behaviour often peaked during the evening.

Councillor Matthew Spooner raised concerns about PCSOs being taken away from their core duties.

He said: "What I think the public doesn't want to see is a situation where the job of taking statements are just dumped on PCSOs, and they are essentially, for want of a better phrase, used as dogsbodies. That's not want the public want to see. They want to see PCSOs out in the community."

advertisement

But Ch Insp Goodwin gave assurances that, as a local policing commander, he would not want to see this either.

He said: Our PCSOs will have a series of things I want them to do in the course of their duties, whether it's contact records with members of the public, or hosting events. So this is not about making PCSOs statement takers. That's not how I would want it to play out in the Moorlands."

Ch Insp Goodwin also told the panel that the total number of PCSOs based in the Moorlands had been increased by two this year.