Police Community Support Officer (PCSO)

Salary information: We offer an excellent starting salary of £29,220 (this includes your additional payments for working shifts, such as shift allowances and enhancements for weekend working based on a full time worker)

The community is at the heart of everything we do; our friends, colleagues and neighbours are what makes up the areas in which we live and work.

As a PCSO you will have a unique and rewarding career; building connections in communities and providing a dedicated link between the police and the public.

Strong communication skills are vital in this frontline, public-facing role. We’re looking for transferable skills such as customer service and sales, and personal attributes such as problem solving and empathy. Your experiences shape who you are. We are offering you the opportunity to bring your own perspectives and apply them to your job every day. In return, we’ll give you the chance to build new skills, gain unrivalled experience and you’ll be valued for what you bring.

The role of a PCSO

As a PCSO you will help to reduce crime and reassure the public. You’ll be a visible uniformed presence making a positive impact in our neighbourhoods. As a community champion you will take a proactive, problem-solving approach to dealing with issues; you’ll attend events to provide crime prevention advice and you’ll build links with businesses and community leaders.

Your duties will include:

• Giving a crime prevention talk to your local primary school
• Arranging community events such as bike marking or Talk to Us event’s, giving people crime prevention and personal safety advice
• Dealing with victims of anti-social behaviour and working with partner agencies such as councils, social services, youth services, NHS, Fire & Rescue, and mental health services
• Attending a crime scene to keep a cordon in place
• Attending the scene of a serious road traffic accident to help divert and direct traffic until the road is safe again
• Conducting house to house enquiries to help locate witnesses to crimes in your area

In this role you will not have powers of arrest. Instead, you will be a key point of contact, talking to people to provide knowledge, reassurance, and resolution to issues that are important to your neighbourhoods and communities.

The role of a PCSO can be challenging at times. Sometimes you will be called on to resolve emotionally charged situations and because you wear a uniform you might find members of the public can be confrontational. It’s important you can remain professional, calm, and breakdown barriers to improve connections between the police and the public.

During your shift you could be on foot, bicycle or driving a police vehicle, attending planned crime prevention activities and live incidents and reports of crime. You may need to make split second decisions in this role. It is crucial you can manage your workload effectively, prioritising ever changing demands.

What we are looking for

Our communities are diverse, and we are too. We particularly welcome applications from people who can speak additional languages or have personal experience of people from different backgrounds. Don’t worry if that doesn’t apply to you, we are still keen to hear from you and the skills you can bring.

You will be a good listener and communicator. Someone who is confident talking to groups of people, understanding their concerns, and providing solutions. At times you will be making decisions quickly and you will also need to be happy to work to ever changing priorities.

Benefits

We value our people and take wellbeing seriously. As a PCSO you will have access to benefits including the Local Government Pension Scheme, professionally delivered learning and development courses, our Employee Assistance Programme and in-house Occupational Health team, competitive annual leave entitlement and our active support networks.

We want you to be successful in your development and we offer a dedicated eight-week training package to ensure you are supported at every step of your journey. You will work a shift pattern including day, evening, and weekend shifts from as early as week nine of your appointment alongside your team. You will be offered support from one of our existing, experienced PCSOs as a professional mentor.

About us

We are caring, inclusive, courageous, and committed to learning. Our values guide the way we behave, the decisions we make and how we treat people.

We are working hard to increase diversity and inclusion, we always welcome applications where communities are under-represented, including those from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities, people of all ages, abilities, faiths, religions and gender, LGBT+ communities and those from other disadvantaged or marginalised backgrounds.

We are also able to consider requests for flexible or part time working (please note the initial training course is on a full-time basis).

If you are looking for a fresh challenge, a unique opportunity to make a real difference to people’s lives, and the chance to broaden your experience in an organisation that genuinely cares about its employees, Avon and Somerset Police is for you.

Force area

During this campaign we will be recruiting all over the Force area and would like to understand your preference of posting locations. The Force area is made up of 8 local authorities:

North - South Gloucestershire, Bristol, North Somerset, Bath and North East Somerset.

South - Sedgemoor, Mendip, South Somerset, Somerset West and Taunton.

Additional information

If you are interested in applying for this role, we encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity, please note that we reserve the right to close the application window subject to number of applications received.

Successful applications to this role will commence training on number of intakes starting June 2023.