PETERSFIELD Police sergeant Paul Bromell has welcomed news that the town will soon be patrolled by six police community support officers. Last Saturday, support officers Joseph Etele and John Terry pounded the beat for the first time, joining current staff Stuart Neal and Tria Bleach. And after three months a further two officers will be added to the ranks of officers protecting Petersfield, Liss, and the surrounding rural communities. The town's allocation of four extra support officers comes hard on the heels of an announcement in December that an initial plan for 30 such officers in the East Hampshire area north of Butser Hill had been slashed to just 12. And Sgt Bromell admitted to being "pleasantly surprised" by news that his St Peter's Road-based team would receive new recruits. The extra numbers, he added, could provide the answer to maintaining a high police presence in the town. He told The Herald this week: "Police community support officers can spend at least 80 per cent of their time out on patrol, which makes them a really useful resource. "Nationally, there have been cutbacks, so we were pleasantly surprised when we heard about our new recruits. "They provide the visibility and presence we need for the scale of crime we have in the town." Petersfield is currently served by one sergeant and four police constables. They also form part of a larger response team based at the Longmoor headquarters in Whitehill. Even though police community support officers do not have the same power as regular beat officers, they do have the power to issue fixed penalties for disorder, and they can detain someone for up to 30 minutes in order for help to arrive. This gives them the same power of citizen's arrest as the public, but under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, a detainee need not be re-arrested by a regular officer where circumstances made the original arrest necessary. "The idea is that a uniform is out there on the street. It will hopefully improve the level of information we receive, as people will be able to talk to them on the street," Sgt Bromell added. "The policy line is that the support officers are here to supplement existing police officers, not to replace them. "It is about rebuilding contacts with the community and being out and about. They will also be able to get involved in neighbourhood watch schemes." • At last month's central area EHDC community forum, it was revealed that the target for support- officer recruitment across the whole of the Hampshire Constabulary had now been reduced from 539 to 333, and the planned recruitment scheme – due to take place from May next year to March 2008 – had been abandoned. But the council's lead officer on community safety, Guy Riddoch, said it was important to remember that the district was still due to get more police officers than it currently had. He told members: "The funding arrangements have been cut, and in the district north of Butser there are now going to be 12 community support officers. "This is quite a serious reduction, but it is still 12 officers we didn't have before. There is a positive way to look at it. "These people are dedicated beat officers who are not going to be called off on other issues like the response officers. "You will see more officers on the beat, hopefully."
