CONTROLLED STATES News and Public information blog

March of the wardens: Town hall ‘enforcers’ with police powers increase by a fifth in a year

Town hall 'enforcers' with police powers has increase by a fifth in one year

The number of town hall snoopers and private security guards armed with sweeping police powers has rocketed by a fifth in only 12 months.

There are now 1,667 park wardens, dog wardens, car park attendants and shopping centre guards permitted to hand out fines for 'crimes' such as littering, dog fouling and criminal damage.

They may take photographs of the people they have fined, and demand names and addresses. A further 478 civilians have been given the power to stop vehicles to check for out-of-date tax discs. 

The hope is that the army of civilians will free police officers from having to perform these unpopular tasks.

But critics said the so-called Community Safety Accreditation Scheme amounted to 'state-sanctioned vigilantism'.

They said it created a third tier of policing, below properly trained police and community support officers.

Simon Reed of the Police Federation said: 'What control do we have over these people?

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1236220/March-wardens-Town-hall-enforcers-police-powers-increase-fifth-year.html#ixzz0Zr14qdWo