1. How much does it cost to train a Special Constable?
Currently the cost of initial training is £ 630 per Special Constable.
The biggest cost of training Specials is the tutoring on Division. This costs £6,700 per
Special constable. This tutoring takes place on Divisions by Police Officers within the
Professional Development Units. It can take up to 18 months for Specials to gain
Independent Patrol. These are the same officers who tutor regular Police Constables and therefore some prioritisation would need to take place when the force recruits officers at the same time as Specials.
We are currently reviewing how we train new Specials and this will have a big impact upon the initial training and some impact upon the tutoring stage of the training. We are still looking at costings of this but we expect this to reduce the cost of training by c. £1K per
Special Constable.
The costs of recruiting a Special Constable is £390 per applicant.
2. How much does it cost to equip a Special Constable compared to a PCSO and
Police Officer?
Cost of equipping a Special Constable is £850 per person
Cost of equipping a PCSO is
£590
per person
Cost of equipping a Police Officer £850 per person
(Source: Uniform Stores)
3. The total cost for doubling the number of Special Constables that Sussex Police currently has?
We currently have 370 Specials so we will need to recruit another 370.
Recruitment Costs (£387 x 370) £143,000
Training Costs ( £7000X 370) £2,590,000
Equipment Costs
(£850 X 370) £314,000
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Total Cost (approx) £3,000,000
The above figures are approximate costs and may change as we review the way in which we recruit and train Specials. We have in the past experienced a high attrition rate for
Specials and this will mean that in order to double the numbers we will have to recruit a lot more than 370 - in order to allow for the attrition. This will therefore push up the costs.
We also need to factor in the fact that Specials are able to claim all reasonable expenses during their training costs - at 60p per mile this will add up.
Special Constables only have to commit to 4 hours (16 hours per month) per week duty time with the force once they are trained.
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