AFTER eventually finding the blue door around the back of Cranham Drive shops in Warndon, Worcester, community support officer Matt Harris escorts me into the tiny bunker-like police post.

CSO Harris has been in his job since March 2007 covering the Brickfields and Tolladine areas.

Today, he started work at noon and will finish at 10pm.

We head away from Warndon police post towards Brickfields for the first round of visits on his shift.

As we walk, CSO Harris attempts to set the record straight about what he says is an unfair public perception of CSOs.

The 25-year-old said: “People think we are substitute police officers but we’re not. If something is kicking off in front off us, it is our job to step back and contact the police.

“We are trained to not be confrontational with people. Our job is more about building up relationships in the community and reassuring vulnerable people or victims of crime.

“You can measure the number of fixed penalty notices which have been given out – but it is impossible to measure the number of crimes that CSOs have prevented.”

After walking for about 15 minutes, I notice that everyone we pass knows CSO Harris and calls him by his first name. He has a very informal relationship with people and they seem to see him more as a friend than a figure of authority.

Our first visit is to see a man CSO Harris describes as a vulnerable member of the community. He was left with disabilities following a motorbike accident 20 years ago.

CSO Harris said: “I like to go and see him, have a chat and maybe a cup of tea, just to check he is OK.

We have built up a good relationship. He overlooks the playing fields where we have had a lot of problems with people riding motorbikes.

“We have now managed to get new gates fitted to make it difficult to get bikes on to the playing fields and the problem has improved.”

Without stopping for tea on this occasion, we then head to the OneStop store on Brickfields Road where CSO Harris hands out posters to the staff to remind them not to sell eggs or flour to youngsters under 18 over the Halloween weekend.

He said: “It’s good to show my face in the shop, let them know I’m in the area and let them know what time I’m working until so they can call me if they have any trouble.”

He said that three children had recently caused problems in the store. He was able to identify all of them on the CCTV and send antisocial behaviour letters to their parents.

Heading into King George’s playing fields gave me a real sense of the positive work CSO Harris is doing with the younger children in the community.

Again, most of the kids shout out, “Hi Matt”, and many of the youngsters who are playing football come running over for a chat. One younger child asks: “Are you a policeman? Can you arrest people? Have you got handcuffs?”

CSO Harris explains that he works with the police but is not a police officer and, despite their young ages, they all seem to understand his job and look up to him as a positive role model.

CSO Harris has built up a good relationship with the youngsters by running a weekly football session for eight to 16-year-olds on a Tuesday between 5pm and 6pm.

He added: “The football sessions have helped me to get to know everyone. It is really important to build up relationships with them when they are young and help them to get involved in sports or other activities.

“If you can give them something they really enjoy and care about, it gives them an incentive to behave better.

“It is a bit more difficult to get through to some of the older kids.”

CSO Harris recently took a group of youngsters to Worcester Norton Shooting Club, where they were shown how dangerous BB guns and imitation firearms could be. He said that, following the trip, the number of incidents involving BB guns in Tolladine and Brickfields had reduced.

Continuing our walk through the park and into Tolladine, we meet more youngsters who are keen to stop and chat and we speak to some parents. CSO Harris distributes posters which people can put in their windows if they don’t want trick-or-treaters.

He finds out where any particularly elderly or vulnerable residents live and plans to visit them later to give out more posters – and reassure them he will be in the area if they have any problems.

As we head back to Warndon, CSO Harris continues to explain how his job is more about trying to prevent anti-social behaviour.

“If some kids have put graffiti on someone’s wall, it is better to give them a bucket and make them scrub it off rather than give them a fine.

“Some CSOs want to be mini police officers, but I don’t. A lot of the jobs we pick up don’t even get reported to the police.

“There will always be negative reports saying we are a waste of space but most of us are hardworking people who actually care about what we do.

“The demands on the police force are just too high for them to be able to come out and deal with everything.

“We are here to deal with the things which the police can’t dedicate their resources to.

“Without CSOs, the police would spend too much time dealing with issues that aren’t crime.”