Tory uproar over 'plastic' police plan

Blunkett: Claims he will not impose community officers

Chancellor Gordon Brown's bid to cut costs are behind controversial plans to give police powers to community officers, according to shadow home secretary Oliver Letwin.

He claimed that if there was a chance of "doing something on the cheap", chancellors began "to salivate".

We want to see real police officers doing a real job not plastic officers

Oliver Letwin

Mr Letwin made the accusations during an attack on Home Secretary David Blunkett's plans to introduce civilian Community Support Officers who would have powers to detain suspects for up to 30 minutes.

He told the Police Federation of England and Wales' annual conference in Bournemouth: "We want to see real police officers doing a real job not plastic officers doing a plastic job."

In a speech to the 1,000 police delegates, Mr Letwin described the home secretary's assurance that CSOs would not be imposed on police forces as "deeply misleading".

'Less trained and cheaper'

"The truth is the home secretary is not the only person who runs the Home Office," he said.

"Behind him stands Gordon Brown and when chancellors of the exchequer see there is a chance of doing something on the cheap they begin to salivate.

"Powerful though home secretaries are they are not as powerful as chancellors of the exchequer.

Letwin: Accused home secretary of running police from Whitehall

"The time will come, if the Police Reform Bill stands as it is, when a gremlin or mandarin will spot... they could have a police force on the streets that is less trained and cheaper, that satisfies the public by getting out people with uniforms and powers of semi-arrest."

Mr Letwin argued that CSOs should be limited to a small number of areas in London.

'Demoralised force'

New police recruits would benefit from seeing neighbourhood policing as a high status job, he said.

"You will not see that in my view if you hand over custodianship of the neighbourhoods to CSOs and wardens with powers of semi-arrest."

He also accused Mr Blunkett of trying to run a "great service" from a desk in Whitehall.

This results in "demoralising the profession, increasingly turning people in the service into digits and you cannot police effectively if you are demoralised digits".

He added: "We want to see police officers on the beat, not police officers beaten up by bureaucrats."