Police support volunteer
Police Support Volunteer (or PSV, Police Community Volunteer, PCV) is a voluntary role within the ranks of British Police Forces that involves civilian and mainly office based duties. PSV schemes became popular after 2000 when forces were expanding and needed to be more connected to the community. At the start few forces had a civilian volunteer scheme but by 2010, 32 of the 43 police forces have PSV schemes. In the UK there are over 6,250 volunteers, who contribute over 500,000 hours a year voluntarily. It is estimated that the number of PSV's will increase by 70% next year to over 10,000 volunteers. The first PSV scheme was started in 1992 by Kent Police. South Wales Police run a similar scheme alongside PSV, called Police Student Volunteer, a scheme that encourages students to help local policing teams. Duties PSV's generally take on office based roles such as administration assistants or operations assistants, with tasks including paperwork, computer-based work, CCTV operators, Police Information Point assistant or frontdesk duties. However, if a PSV has specific skills that can be applied to an alternative role they could find themselves redesignated to a role that benefits from their talents such as roadside camera operations,