WHY CANT PCSOs TRAIN AS SPECIAL CONSTABLES?
The legal situation is that one may not hold the office of constable and be a traffic warden or PCSO because they are incompatable. A constable (either regular or special) holds an office which gives the power of arrest even when not on duty. A constable has an obligation to act to maintain the peace, prevent crime etc. both on and off duty. Given that a PCSO (or traffic warden) has only those powers of arrest that any citizen has the conflict is evident. If one, being a special constable, was on duty as a PCSO and an incident occured which could not be dealt with in that capacity but could and should be dealt with by a constable how should one react? There is an obligation on a constable to act but a PCSO may not-the conflict is clearly evident.
