PC Joe Public: Now YOU can go on the beat: Unprecedented police shake-up will see unpaid civilians patrol with bobbies

50,000 extra special constables to flood crime-plagued neighbourhoods with an army of volunteers.

It has not been decided whether the civilian patrollers will wear special clothing or to what level they will be vetted – leading to fears that vigilantes or busybodies will try to become involved.

Daily Mail
July 27, 2010

In the biggest shake-up of policing for 50 years, ministers want the public to patrol alongside beat bobbies.

They also intend to recruit up to 50,000 extra special constables to flood crime-plagued neighbourhoods with an army of volunteers.

And villages will be protected by a new breed of 'police reservists', modelled on part-time firemen and the Territorial Army.

The coalition government yesterday set out plans for communities to 'reconnect' with police forces which have disappeared behind their desks, engulfed by a flood of red tape.

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