The Association of Special Constabulary Chief Officers has rejected calls from MPs in to make the volunteer force a “Territorial Army” style organisation.

In an interview with PoliceOracle.com, ASCCO Chairman Chief Officer George Cook said the association welcomed any ideas that would strengthen the constabulary. But he believed this would be best achieved within the existing framework.

He was responding to an Early Day Motion from Harlow MP Robert Halfon – entitled Special Constables as a Reserve Force – which maintains there is currently “huge untapped potential” for recruiting many more volunteers.

The motion also notes that “transforming the Special Constabulary into a Territorial Army-style force” would enable officers to carry out more duties offering “excellent value for money”.

Mr Halfon suggests the government “re-focus its resources to incentivise Special Constables so that they work more hours and develop professionally”.

While Early Day Motions – which are topics formally submitted for debate – rarely succeed, they are often used as platforms for highlighting specific campaigns and demonstrating Parliamentary support for a cause or view.

As this story went live, Mr Halfon’s proposal had been signed by five colleagues.

Responding on behalf of ASCCO, however, Chief Officer Cook stressed that that the volunteer status of the Special Constabulary had to be preserved.

He added: “I would also stress that the Specials should never be a direct replacement for the valuable role of PCSOs, who work full time in their communities.

“You only have to look at recent major events, such as the flooding in Cumbria and the 7/7 London bombings to see that volunteers already support Regular colleagues at very short notice and carry out thousands of additional duty hours.”

Chief Officer Cook said that continuing to raise the profile of the Special Constabulary would be best achieved “by continuing to recruit, train and professionally develop officers within the NPIA-led National Strategy framework”.

As previously reported on PoliceOracle.com, moves to bring greater professionalism to the volunteer officers are already underway with the roll out of the strategy.

Focusing on several areas, the document aims to bring greater consistency to marketing, recruitment, training and development, human resources management, performance management, leadership and deployment and tasking.

More recently the growth in the prominence of Specials took a new turn with the opening of a forum at the Police Federation that could lead to the officers being granted membership. Currently they are not eligible to join the organisation.

The system for unpaid police volunteers operates very differently from the TA equivalent. Troops receive an annual tax-free bounty for membership and, if they volunteer or are called up to deploy, they receive full time pay as well as being eligible for the same entitlements as Regular colleagues.

Under current rules, soldiers must also tell current and prospective employers that they are a military reservist and that they could be called on for duty.

For the full text of the Early Day Motion, see http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=41473&SESSION=905