| Thames Valley Police is hiring 500 new ‘cut-price cops’ to deal with motoring offences and antisocial behaviour – including cyclists who flout the law.
The £11m project comes amid rising concern at policing standards in Newbury, after a spate of vandalism, burglary and public drinking, in recent weeks.
The extension of the Police Community Support Officers is supposed to make the force more visible, and so deter criminals. They do have powers of arrest, and will be trained to deal with boy racers, teenage drunks, and rogue drivers and cyclists. Ironically, Newbury’s cycle-cops have often been seen traveling up Bartholomew Street the wrong way, but the new PCSOs will be told to enforce existing laws.
Chief Inspector Jon Smith said: “The Police Community Support Officers are now increasingly accepted in the communities in which they work and they are making a positive contribution.
“They have become well known and people are finding them approachable. They become an important link between the police and the community in which they work.
“The PCSOs will be essential to help us deliver Neighbourhood Policing across the Thames Valley, which will give every community its own team of dedicated police officers and community support officers.”
Thames Valley Police is spending heavily on recruiting the next batch of “cut-price cops” as critics call them, through local newspapers and radio stations. | 
