Having been closely involved with the excellent work that PCSO's do in my town (Bodmin) the tragic story of the young boy who drowned saving his sister really gave me food for thought.
The question that keeps bothering me is that, if the individuals involved were not PCSO's and had simply been passing by, would they have jumped in? Was it their training and uniform that prevented them from doing so. Human nature's adrenalin obviously didn't kick in and supercede all else and so it makes me think that maybe they wouldn't have done so under any circumstance.
Therefore, I do not think that this should reflect badly on "PCSO"'s per se. I think this is more about the two individuals concerned and perhaps their literal interpretations of the rules for their tier of policing.
I am fully confident that faced with the same situation here in Bodmin, our PCSO's would have unhesitatingly jumped in.
The question that keeps bothering me is that, if the individuals involved were not PCSO's and had simply been passing by, would they have jumped in? Was it their training and uniform that prevented them from doing so. Human nature's adrenalin obviously didn't kick in and supercede all else and so it makes me think that maybe they wouldn't have done so under any circumstance.
Therefore, I do not think that this should reflect badly on "PCSO"'s per se. I think this is more about the two individuals concerned and perhaps their literal interpretations of the rules for their tier of policing.
I am fully confident that faced with the same situation here in Bodmin, our PCSO's would have unhesitatingly jumped in.
4 replies:
The comments on this from a Police 'union' representative on Radio 4 were instructive. He was arguing for fully trained Police officers to replace PCSOs but when asked if Police officers would have jumped in to save the boy he replied along the lines of saying that they would need to be trained in this type of rescue and that police officers no longer have to be able to swim, i.e. 'no'.
All the reports I have heard and read state that the boy had already disappeared under the water and had probably perished by the time the PCSOs arrived.
We need to be careful to avoid PCSO-bashing as they are performing a useful function in this part of the world as well. They couldn't continue to do that if they had drowned.
Seeing a child in distress in the water might encourage you to jump in, but seeing an apparently empty pond in which you're told there is a child is a very different matter.
Equally, even First Aiders are told *not* to take risks in this situations. To vilify the PCSOs for not risking their lives, probably uselessly, is utterly unconscionable.
The police are not an emergency rescue service, and shoul dnot be expected to act as such without full and appropriate training.
Maybe I wasn't clear - I have no issue with them being PCSOs and not jumping in ... for me the issue is being a human being and not jumping in!
That said, I appreciate that if there was no sign of a child then perhaps the need to jump in wasn't clear... but I do think I would have done so just in case.
PCSOs in my community carry out some brilliant work and I believe add another dimension to police work, as a local councillor I have welcomed their arrival wholeheartedly.
I think you’re quite right, they are humans and were acting as humans, not PCSOs.
Here are a few stories to balance things out a bit.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=489106&in_page_id=1
http://www.eveningstar.co.uk/content/eveningstar/news/story.aspx?brand=ESTOnline&category=NewsRegional&tBrand=ESTOnline&tCategory=News&itemid=IPED09%20Nov%202007%2020%3A17%3A29%3A723
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article450737.ece
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