Campaign to recruit more than 50 Police Community Support Officers over the next 12 months.
Police Community Support Officers (or PCSOs) are paid employees who work alongside warranted Police Officers to keep communities safe. They take part in neighbourhood patrols, help to tackle anti-social behaviour, provide crime prevention advice and support investigations. Whilst many people choose to be a PCSO as a permanent career role, others use the position to gain experience before applying to become a warranted Officer.
Julia Mulligan, North Yorkshire Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner said:
“This is an important day for residents, businesses and visitors in North Yorkshire, as it kick-starts what will be one of the biggest recruitment exercises in North Yorkshire Police history. Having taken the difficult decision to increase the Precept to meet the demands of communities for more visible policing, recruiting extra PCSOs – together with the recruitment of an additional 50 police Officers – is going to provide that tangible change that communities want to see. I will now be closely watching the progress of the PCSO and police officer recruitment plans, to ensure the money raised via the Precept is spent on what the public wanted.”
Speaking about the recruitment campaign, Phil Cain, Deputy Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police said:
“PCSOs are a really important part of the policing family because they have a very direct link with communities, and help to solve the problems that can affect peoples’ quality of life.
“The increase in the Precept has meant we can boost the number of PCSOs we have in our Force by 20, which is really positive, and will make a significant different to communities. But added to that we also need to recruit to fill vacancies that have arisen from people retiring or moving into warranted Officer roles.
“Our aim is to recruit 50 PCSOs this year in three intakes. Today’s campaign is the start of that process.”
Based around the qualities required to succeed in the PCSO role – including communication, people skills, level-headedness, problem-solving and team-work – the campaign encourages people with these abilities to “be a PCSO”. As well as general publicity, North Yorkshire Police will be holding some special workshops aimed at encouraging people from under-represented groups, such as black and minority ethnic communities, to make an application.
Said DCC Phil Cain:
“We made great progress last year in attracting candidates from a diverse communities into the Force, and we’re continuing to focus on that again this year. We want our workforce to be representative of the wider demographics in North Yorkshire as a whole, and we’ll be running our Positive Action activities alongside this PCSO recruitment campaign to support that.”
For more information and how to apply
Anyone interested in joining North Yorkshire Police as a PCSO can visit: www.northyorkshire.police.uk/pcso for information on the role and how to apply.