THE debate about the role of community support officers rumbles on, mainly because there seems to be widespread confusion about their precise role in society.

And adding to the confusion are the police, who appear to be adopting a twin-pronged approach to criticisms from the public. On the one hand we have the argument that CSOs are basically social workers without real powers, while on the other there is this idea that individual police forces make operational decisions on whether or not support officers should issue penalty notices to offenders.

No one should be in any doubt about the resolve and occasional courage required in order to become a CSO. I wouldn’t want the job, and I take my hat off to them for doing a sometimes-demanding task for an unremarkable salary.

However, it is no good senior police officers trying to brush aside criticism from the public, who daily witness the growing anarchy on our streets and housing estates. These people must know full well that there was a time when the present levels of anti-social behaviour would have been unthinkable.

Cast your mind back just a few years. When I first came to Worcester in the early 1980s, the only trouble was usually on a Saturday night in the relatively small nightclub enclaves around the Butts and Angel Place. Nowadays, threatening behaviour can be encountered in virtually any area of the city. We’ve had attacks on canal towpaths, the riverside, and any number of grossly unpleasant incidents right across the city centre.

These days, the police are extremely concerned with presentation. This is why every force now employs several press officers to act as buffers between themselves and the public.

Glossy brochures – produced courtesy of the taxpayer – drop on to mats in the expectation that the citizen will be reassured with statistics, targets reached, and pictures of smiling policemen talking to happy people.

Unfortunately, there is much public disquiet about the real situation across this city. The time has therefore come for the return of a comprehensive beat policing system utilising – if necessary – the laws that have always been available.