Specials to take charge

Volunteer Special Constables will run Darwen and Clitheroe police stations next weekend for a full eight-hour shift, as part of a national initiative.

They will run Darwen on Sunday, February 23, from 7am and during the day in Clitheroe on Friday, Saturday and possibly Sunday.

The police said it is designed to promote their good work and professionalism.

The specials will do all the work of a regular police officer, but they will not be left to their own devices, as all non-volunteer officers on shift will still go to work.

The National Specials Weekend, organised by the Metropolitan Police, will take place in every police force across the country.

Special officers go on an initial training course prior to work, which covers everything a regular officer does, although it is less intensive and over a shorter period.

They then have continuous weekly training for one night a week. Inspector Graham Ashcroft said that the specials will work a full eight-hour shift, and if it turns out to be a success he said they will continue to man the station.

"The idea of the initiative is to promote specials and to show how effective they are. The service that we get from the specials is excellent, they are turn in week in week out, they are only volunteers and they drive down crime and disorder, we can't do without them.

"The regular officers will be in the station as back-up and to give them the chance to catch with some paperwork and other jobs."

Insp Ashcroft said that rather than feeling threatened by the specials taking over their jobs the regular officers welcomed the move.

"Everybody is happy for this to go ahead," he said. "And if it turns out to be successful it may be extended throughout the rest of the day."

A spokesman for the Met said: "It is designed to show what good work the specials do for the public.They take an active role complementing the normal police in reducing crime and disorder."

A Home Office spokesman said it supported the initiative.