Citizens volunteer over 30,000 hours to keep Bedfordshire safe

During 2021 citizens volunteered more than 30,000 hours as special constables to help keep Bedfordshire safe.

Special constables are members of the public who volunteer in their spare time as a warranted police officer. They wear the same uniform, have the same powers, and work alongside regular officers.

During the time volunteered, specials from the force dealt with 341 crime enquires, made 105 arrests, and assisted in a further 264, completed 460 concerns for welfare visits, 2447 PNC checks and seized 115 vehicles.

Sergeant Suzie Carr, Specials Operational Coordinator, said: “These figures show that special constables, despite it being another challenging year, have continued to volunteer their time working alongside community and response teams in 2021.

“We are honoured to have a group of dedicated and committed volunteer officers. The figures show the vast contribution they make to the service we provide to our communities and the amount of demand they support our regular officers with.

The special constable role has changed slightly over the year. Their focus was working with response policing, but now volunteers work with community teams too. This helps the community officers receive some vital support and allows special constables to work on projects that will benefit the community and potentially work in the area they live in, so they can see how their work has changed lives.

Chief Inspector Alex House, the Force’s Tactical lead said: “Special Constables are a vital resource for the Force and we want to make sure more teams receive their valuable support. We’ve made some welcomed changes to the way we deploy, so our community teams can gain a few extra pair of hands and our volunteers can make a real difference to the lives’ of our local residents.”

“We recognise that our Special Constabulary brings additional diverse skills and knowledge from their work and lives outside policing, and we are currently working on expanding where they can be deployed, so they can use these valuable skills working with detectives in Public Protection or our officers in cybercrime, and more.

“If you want to gain new skills, meet new people, and help Bedfordshire, why not do something different in 2022 and volunteer as a special constable?”

Find out more about being a special constable and how you can make a difference to your community.