Future
It was expected that the Conservative Party might remove PCSOs in early 2010. It has been reported by the Daily Telegraph that under the Conservatives, police chiefs will no longer be given a fixed amount of money to spend only on PCSOs. Before the 2010 General Election the then Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling was understood to be doubtful of the effectiveness of PCSOs and was concerned that a disproportionate number of them were disciplined in 2009. He stated he would leave it up to individual chief constables to decide whether their particular police force needs PCSOs. However, when interviewed by the Yorkshire Post in May 2009 he suggested that the Conservative Party may well scrap PCSOs altogether.
Since the 2010 general election held on 6 May 2012 which resulted in a Conservative Party led coalition government coming to power, no police force has disbanded or announced the disbanding of its PCSOs, and many forces have continued to recruit PCSOs after the 2010 election. Such forces include Durham Constabulary in December 2011 and British Transport Police (BTP) in June 2011. BTP in 2012 have decided to increase their overall numbers of PCSOs. The Metropolitan Police in February 2012 undertook a recruitment campaign to employ around 1000 additional PCSOs.
Chris Grayling, who was possibly considering reducing or disbanding PCSOs, was not made Home Secretary after the 2010 general election. Instead, he was appointed Minister of State at the Department for Work and Pensions.
In April 2012 Home Secretary Theresa May told a Home Affairs Select Committee she would leave PCSO funding and numbers to individual police forces although she did not announce any all-out plans to disband them.
During the England and Wales Police and Crime Commissioner elections, 2012 the UK Independence Party (UKIP) Candidate for the post of Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Norfolk Constabulary Matthew Smith stated he was doubtful of the effectiveness of PCSOs and wanted to reduce their numbers claiming during a debate on BBC Radio Norfolk in the run up to the election that the public in his opinion were not happy with PCSOs seeing them as “Plastic Policemen” During his campaign to be the PCC he stated he would prioritise recruitment to have more Police Constables and Special Constables rather than PCSOs.
All other PCC candidates for Norfolk Constabulary defended PCSOs and their role in the debate. The election for PCCs was held on Thursday 15 November 2012, Mathew Smith did not win the election ending up being beaten coming 4th with just a 7.6% share of the vote by independent candidate Stephen Bett who won, Jamie Athill (Conservative Party) and Steve Morphew (Labour Party). Matthew Smith is the only known candidate during the England and Wales Police and Crime Commissioner elections, 2012 who planed to reduce PCSO numbers.
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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