Police CSO row set to escalate

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Officials from the Police Federation - which represents rank and file officers - published results of a poll which indicated that seven out of 10 people would like to see CSOs replaced by police officers.

It comes just two days before Jacqui Smith faces perhaps her biggest challenge since taking over as Home Secretary.

On Wednesday she is due to speak at the Federation's annual conference in front of 1,000 delegates who are still angry over the Government's decision to postpone their pay rise.

The YouGov survey of 2,100 adults, commissioned by the Federation's constables' central committee, showed 70% of respondents said they would feel safer if there were fewer CSOs on the beat and more police officers.

And after being told that constables' start on £21,000 a year compared with £16,000 for a CSO, 57% said Pcs provided better value for money. Just 8% of the public said they would feel safer with more CSOs on the beat at the expense of a cut in police numbers.

Constables' chairman Julie Nesbit said: "The Government's experiment with CSOs has clearly failed. The public want to see police officers, not imitations, on our streets. These findings clearly demonstrate that the public feel safer with police officers patrolling our streets and not civilian staff."

She added: "The constables' central committee warned the Government when CSOs were introduced that trying to police on the cheap was short sighted and it seems our position has now been vindicated."

The Police Federation has opposed CSOs since they were introduced by former home secretary David Blunkett in 2003, claiming they were "policing on the cheap".

Individuals within the Federation have dismissed CSOs as "plastic policemen", "Blunkett's bobbies" and "yellow-clad numpties".