Decoy Police

It has emerged that the Police have 330 “decoy cops” or “temporary constables”. Now these are people who look like cops, wear the uniform, but in fact are not cops – they can not arrest offenders, and have no handcuffs, batons or pepper spray.

I love the quote from Simon Power:

“How do rural members of the public know, when they approach a person in police uniform and in an emergency situation, whether that person is a sworn and fully trained police officer, a decoy cop, or the lead singer from the Village People,”

It is only since November that these temporary constables have been allowed to wear the police uniform.