Policing on the Cheap?

The news that Boarder Volunteers could be deployed to help plug gaps in the UK’s Border Force, which has undergone drastic cuts under successive Conservative-led governments would be amusing if it was  not  so dangerous.

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The plan, similar to the use of special constables in the police, is being considered in Whitehall. Critics, however, say doing so would be risky and caution against using a “Dad’s Army” to guard Britain’s frontiers.
 


Under the proposal, teams of volunteers would be used to bolster staffing levels at the Border Force, which manages immigration and customs controls. The government stressed that involving volunteers in immigration enforcement was not under discussion.

So what exacrly will they do and what legal powers will they have

 Special constables for example have  of the British Transport Police have exactly the same national powers and privileges as regular BTP constables, and the same cross-border powers. BTP special constables do not wear the distinctive "SC" insignia on their epaulettes. They work across England, Wales and Scotland and will often parade on at their home station and work 40 to 80 miles away from it.


The role of  if Special Constables has led them to be direieded as Hobby Bobbies. according tos blogger-turned-author PC Ellie Bloggs, whose 2007 book, Diary of an On-Call Girl, documented life as a police officer with unflinching honesty, is because they are, in effect, mere "hobby bobbies".

 She says,

"Most of them work just one day a week, "so how could they be anything else? To be completely and brutally honest about it, there is sometimes the perception within the regular force that a lot of them have just joined up solely to swan about on their days off in uniform, and have a bit of power." She laughs. "That's not necessarily a negative, though. A lot of real officers also joined for that very reason."
Ultimately, however, they are rarely cut from the same cloth, she argues, and therein lies the problem common to all TV police dramas: assumed superiority versus presumed inferiority.
"Not all police like them, no, it's true," she says. "Special Constables cannot follow cases through to court, for example, and so they cannot really help with investigations. And many Specials can't even take statements properly because they don't know how to. If you can't take a statement, then you don't fully understand the law."
And sometimes they can make snap decisions that end up making more work for the regular force. "That can strain relations,"

I am not sneering at Special Constables, But how much longer can we expect to run things on the cheap?

We now have  police community support officer (PCSO)as well 

A uniformed civilian member of police support staff in England and Wales, a role created by Section 38(2) of the Police Reform Act 2002, which was given Royal Assent by Queen Elizabeth II on 24 July 2002.are non-warranted but are provided a variety of police powers and the power of a Constable in various instances by the forty-three territorial police forces in England and Wales and the British Transport Police (which is the only special police service to employ PCSOs).

So we have three levels of Policeman in these troubled times should not the aim be to have as fully professional  Police Force as possible. 

Now it seems that our boarder after Brexit may see  them unprotected.

I would prefer Open-Boarders any time to a return to the sought of    Cornish smuggler as “a clever fellow who knew how to cheat the government of its revenues and bring [in] brandy at half price described Winston Graham describes in his Poldark series,

Bur there will be no romance in the modern day smuggler  and we will see people placed in danger .