Britons, what is this article talking about?

Sounds like 1984, Orwell.

Who said, “Those who would trade their liberty for saftey deserver neither”?

Community Wardens. They’re wannabe policemen. Plastic cops. They’re paid by local councils to do the work that the police are too busy to do. I don’t think they have the right to arrest someone. As that article suggests, most of what they seem to do is pretty useless.

What he’s talking about are police comunity support officers. Their job is to support the work of the police. It’s sort of like a teachers asistant except for police. They do not have the same powers as the police ie they can’t arrest suspects but can detain a susspect while awaiting a police officer to the actual work. To be honest their role is a bit fuzzy and its genearlly seen as policing on the cheap. The idea is you have a load of people wandering about in uniform and this deters crime.

We do have volunteer police offices called special constables who hilariously get the same training as the regular ploice and do have all the same powers of arrest etc

The refernce to “red and white prefect badge” people refers to the habit of schools giving a badge (red and white with the word prefect on it) to well behaved pupils giving them limited power over other pupils – the equivalent of “hall monitors” in th US I suppose

Thank you. In my city we have “Police Service Aides,” but they mainly deal with traffic accidents and parking violations.

I can see now how the prefect badge reference was intended. Ouch.

rise of the footsoldier is good exampel.the law is tought but police understandable.

Pathfinder,what the fuck does that mean.

Intrigued by the quote in the first answer, I looked it up. Apparently it’s attributed to Benjamin Franklin and has been paraphrased a lot over the years. The original was:

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Hall Monitors.

Does anybody else think of the term “Hitler Youth” when they read this article? This sounds dangerous to me. The statement that the author made about prisons do not reform criminals and that crime is a result of more than personal moral failure, but rather a result of complex social issues is spot on.
@ Kevbo, I strongly recommend that you read Dr. David Lykken’s article about crime and a controversial cure.

Ah…. here in the UK we’ve developed a whole swathe of people with limited law enforcement powers…. street wardens, litter wardens, & the thorn in everyone’s side…. the Police Community Support Officer. Basically a whole bunch of people who didn’t have what it takes to get into the Police force, but they’ve been given lesser badges anyway. PCSO’s are more insidious than the rest though as they dress like Police Officers….

@JeffVader, what a freakin’ nightmare.

@kevbo I kow, jumped up little Hitlers are everywhere!