Abstract

In the past few years UK police forces have faced many challenges, both practically, politically and financially. With ‘real term’ cuts in Whitehall funding, along with changes in the nature of ‘the crime problem’ and the need to respond to the dynamics of public and political expectations, police forces have had to explore ways to balance reduced budgets. For some authorities these have included outsourcing services (see White 2014), collaborations between forces and creating partnerships to sharing resources with other organisations, such as the fire and ambulance services. The concept of using volunteers for policing roles had a much longer history; volunteer Special Constables, who have the same powers as regular police officers are still a significant part of the modern police service. Police Support Volunteers, who in general tend to be involved in civilian police roles were a more recent addition to the police family, becoming more significant in the past decade. However, due to the political culture of austerity, and the emphasis on community participation, some police authorities have been exploring how they might develop their volunteer programmes further. This paper explores volunteer programmes developed by Lincolnshire Police as part of their V1000 project, in collaboration with the University of Lincoln. The paper looks at the creation of the Volunteer Police Community Support Officer role, the Lincolnshire Police Lincoln Award initiative ‘counter top staff’ and the implications for this diversification in terms of police practice, police officer/civilian staff and public perceptions as well as the national debate around delegated powers.