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Thames Valley
Police launched a huge campaign
on
14th August to recruit more than 500 Police Community
Support Officers (PCSOs) to support
the roll out of Neighbourhood Policing across
Thames
Valley
. They are looking for confident, level-headed team players with a
mature and positive outlook on life. A good PCSO is able to
communicate and empathise with people from different backgrounds in
a range of situations and is approachable and able to focus on the
needs of the community.
PCSO CASE STUDY – PCSO
Paula
Boston
PCSO Paula Boston works in
Wing
, near Aylesbury, and is the Thames Valley Police PCSO of the Year
2006.
“I’ve always enjoyed jobs which involve working with people – in
the past I’ve been licensee and have worked in restaurants – and
when I saw the publicity for the PCSO role I was interested straight
away.
“Doing something more community based and spending every day out and
about with a real cross section of people is giving me the ability to
make a difference. The community have been fantastic; they have
welcomed me and have been supportive of me and my role.
“As a PCSO, my greatest power is communication. It is so important
that I’m able to build relationships with a wide range of people –
the public, colleagues and also other services like the council and
the youth service. These relationships give me the ability to make
changes by building partnerships.
“Getting to know the community helps you discover the issues and get
involved in solving them. Here in
Wing
we had a few anti social behaviour issues. We got a community meeting
together and managed to sort the problem out – the probation service
assisted with removing graffiti and we are all getting together to
campaign for a games area for the young people.
“If you are a people person and you want to make a difference, it is
a fantastic job. You have the full support of everyone within Thames
Valley Police and, after a few months, you have the whole community
working alongside you too.”
There are vacancies across all of the Aylesbury and
Buckingham
Police Area. If you know someone who might be interested in becoming a
PCSO for Thames Valley Police ask them to contact the national
recruitment line on 0845 600
0925 for an application pack or log on to www.rewardingrole.co.uk
for more information about the role.
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