Anti-social behaviour: PCSO numbers halved in England and Wales under Tories as Sunak announces crackdown

The number of police community support officers (PCSOs) in England and Wales has halved since the Conservatives came into power in 2010, with the number plummeting by more than 8,000, NationalWorld can reveal.

Despite being generally seen as key in tackling anti-social behaviour in communities, critics say that visible neighbourhood policing has been “massively undervalued” by the government and has “taken a beating” over the past decade with cuts.

Home Office figures show the number of PCSOs has dropped by 49.5% over the last 12 years, falling from 16,000 in 2010 to 8,000 in 2022.

On Monday the government announced that anti-social behaviour offenders would face tough new punishments, such as being forced to pick up litter, remove graffiti or wash police cars, and be made to wear high-vis vests or jumpsuits and work under supervision. Victims of anti-social behaviour from the local community will also be given a say in offenders’ punishments. It will be piloted across 16 Police and Crime Commissioner areas.

PCSOs are separate from police officers but share some of the same powers and can hand out fixed penalty notices, take alcohol off an underage person and take the details of someone being antisocial.

The government said it recognises the “valuable role” PCSOs play in tackling antisocial behaviour and that recruitment decisions are taken by individual forces.

‘The foundation of policing’

Tiff Lynch, national deputy chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said that government cuts were affecting police presence across communities.

“Community-based policing is the foundation of policing and is key to tackling anti-social behaviour in order for our communities to start to feel safer,” she said.

She said: “Efforts to strengthen neighbourhood policing have taken a beating over the past decade because of the steady decline in police officer numbers, and haphazard, short-term funding from central government directly resulting in local police stations having to be sold, alongside the disappearing uniform presence of the ‘bobby on the beat’.”

“As a result of the years of austerity, there are fewer than 6,000 police officers in these neighbourhood teams than a decade ago and the importance of visible neighbourhood policing has been massively undervalued. In addition, the demands on police officers are already immense, so caution needs to be taken with these pilots to ensure the focus on one crime is not at the expense of another.”

Since 2010/11 there have been almost 30 million recorded police incidents of antisocial behaviour in England and Wales, according to data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). However, figures suggest the issue is improving as figures show a 66.9% drop in police-recorded incidents between 2010/11 and 2021/22.

Separate figures from the ONS about people’s experiences of crime also suggest anti-social behaviour has fallen in recent years. As part of the Crime Survey for England and Wales, people were asked if they had experienced or witnessed antisocial behaviour in the past year (October 2021 to September 2022) 35.2% said yes, a 4.5 percentage point decrease on the last survey (April 2019 to March 2020) when almost 40% (39.7%) said yes.

The Home Office said PCSOs play a “valuable role” in tackling anti-social behaviour in communities. A spokesperson said: “Decisions on PSCO recruitment are made by individual police forces. We remain on track to recruit the 20,000 additional officers nationally with thousands of extra officers already patrolling the streets, protecting the public and clamping down on violent crime.”