The Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (CSAS) is a UK program that allows non-police employees to have some police powers to help with community safety: CSAS was created under the Police Reform Act 2002 and Regency are proud to be accredited in both Essex and Norfolk and have a team of Norfolk CSAS accredited officers ready for deployment.
CSAS aims to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour, and to combat public nuisance and disorder
CSAS is a voluntary scheme under which chief constables can choose to accredit employed people already working in roles that contribute to maintaining and improving community safety with limited but targeted powers. These roles include neighbourhood wardens, hospital security guards, park wardens, shopping mall guards and traffic management.
The scheme creates a framework for public and private bodies to work in partnership with the police, providing additional uniformed presence in communities and capitalising on the skills and information captured by those already engaged with the community.
All schemes are managed, monitored and assessed at a local level by the responsible police force. Main benefits of the scheme include:
• Increasing uniformed presence on the streets (CSAS-accredited persons wear the uniform of their employing organisation, with an identification badge endorsed by the local police force)
• Reductions in local issues such as street drinking, begging and traffic management (road closures)
• Saving valuable police time in community safety to deal with low-level crime and disorder
• Promoting greater business involvement with the police and allowing the police to influence the training of businesses, eg security companies
• Promoting partnership working and the 2-way exchange of information and intelligence between agencies
