Specials are an ‘amazing asset’

9 March 2023

Special Constables are an “amazing asset” to policing and the key roles they play should be properly acknowledged, Police Federation Welsh affairs and Specials lead Nicky Ryan has said.

Speaking on TalkTV as part of the channel’s Police Week, Nicky said she did not feel the value of Specials was always fully appreciated.

She said: “We need to acknowledge that day in, day out there are Special Constables up and down the country that are carrying out frontline duties, detective roles, fighting cybercrime, roads policing - they cover the whole range of duties.

“The skills that policing gets from them can’t be quantified. They are an amazing asset. We have career Specials with 25 or 30 years’ service and they have so much knowledge and experience.”

Nicky said some people joined the Special Constabulary as a route into a career in policing while others chose to sign up because they wanted to serve their community.

She said several current chief constables and senior officers had begun their policing careers as Specials.

“We have 7,401 Special Constables in England and Wales and last year they volunteered more than 2.5 million hours to policing which equates to just over £61.5 million,” Nicky explained.

“Special Constables can, and do, perform most of the same duties as their paid colleagues.

“They wear the same uniform, they have the same policing powers and they are expected to perform to the same high standards - performance wise and ethics wise - as paid officers. The only difference is they are volunteers.”

Nicky said Specials were not paid but were reimbursed for any expenses and often volunteered through a strong sense of community and commitment.

“We have all sorts of people, airline pilots, young mums, students - we have a whole range of people from different backgrounds,” she said.

“People do it for a variety of different reasons and we get to utilise their skills and they learn new skills from policing.

“There are all sorts of areas of policing that are opening up to Specials because we now acknowledge the skills and depth of experience that they have.

“We have people from the banking sector, people from the cyber world with a range of skills that far surpasses what we have in policing.”

The Special Constabulary dates as far back as 1831 but Specials were only allowed to join the Police Federation last summer.

National chair Steve Hartshorn, whose own policing career began in the Special Constabulary, said: “There was a paper brought to the Police Federation annual conference in 2014 when it was decided that it was the right thing to do to allow Specials to join so they could get the same protections as their regular colleagues.

“But it has taken that long to get the legislation through Parliament, to get the Government to work with us to make sure it’s fit for purpose and get the policies right and then it was enacted last year after finally receiving Royal Assent.

“They are very, very welcome as members. There are some fantastic people out there that are equally as committed as full-time officers to doing the job and they bring extra strings to the bow to help us in policing.”