Peter Davies, Temporary Deputy Chief Constable of Lincolnshire Police and ACPO lead on Community Safety Accreditation said:

“The Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (CSAS) allows the Chief Officer in each force area to decide whether to accredit persons working in a community safety function to exercise certain powers in cooperation with police officers and PCSOs. Accredited Persons (APs) can be given powers to deal with specific nuisances such as cycling on a footpath, fly-posting and disorder.

“Talk of government-run Stasi-style snooping is wide of the mark. The Police Reform Act 2002 makes it clear that setting up an accreditation scheme is at the discretion of the Chief Officer after consultation, who will take decisions to establish a scheme or not based on local circumstances. Responsibility for operational policing is solely invested in the chief officer for each area.

“The CSAS remains an adjunct to police business but accounts for a tiny fraction of activity and ACPO is not aware of any requests to expand powers or the scheme’s use. Since 2002 when the CSAS was first established the national roll out of neighbourhood policing led by ACPO has transformed the landscape of national policing, putting teams in place to respond to citizen concerns and build security and confidence in each local area.

“ACPO guidance to forces on the CSAS is the subject of regular review and a further review looking at all aspects of the scheme is due to commence this year.”