UNISON is urging authorities to look at the increasing use of “police support volunteers” by forces in England and Wales – and what this means for policing.
In particular, the union is calling on Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary to carry out a “thematic inspection” of the increasing trend to replace paid police staff with volunteers.
It has also asked the College of Policing to look at the issue.
The union pulished a Report on Police Support Volunteers at the end of last year which laid bare a “bewildering range of police functions now being given to well meaning amateurs at a time of massive cuts to the police staff workforce.”
UNISON national officer Ben Priestley noted that this has happened “without any public debate outside of the police service, and there are real questions as to whether the developments we highlight are all in the public interest.
“In particular, UNISON’s report is critical of those forces which have placed volunteers in roles which would normally be paid jobs, and/or roles which are clearly operational in their function.
“UNISON believes that these matters fall squarely into the remit of the College of Policing and UNISON has asked the College to respond to our report and convene the necessary consultative process to open up the issues to both the service and the wider public, and seek a new consensus if possible on the use of volunteers into the future.”