Support staff 'won't replace PCs'

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A chief constable said yesterday that plans to expand the role of community support officers would not mean the end of "bobbies on the beat".

David Crompton, Chief Constable of South Yorkshire, told a police authority meeting in Barnsley that a row over proposals to replace police officers with rebranded PCSOs were a "storm in a teacup".

Mr Crompton said: "Police officers will still be working in the same areas they have worked in previously, dealing with problems in the same communities." The meeting was told that the proposals affected only neighbourhood policing, not the response teams.