Lincolnshire police chief constable says cutting PSCO numbers was tough but necessary
Numbers have gone from 91 to 50
Lincolnshire police's Chief Constable says cutting the number of PCSOs has been the most difficult decision he's had to make in the job, but denies it's had a negative affect,
Last year the number of PCSOs in the county dropped from 91 to just 50 - though the money from the lost officers was used to fund staff elsewhere in the force.
Chris Haward - who's due to step down shortly - spoke to us about the decision
Their role was important in keeping communities informed
He said:"I think it was a really hard decision and there was nowhere else to go if we were to balance our books."
"It was a choice between my PSCOs or taking people out of child sexual exploitation paedophilia online, proteting vulnerable people, domestic violence - those are the decisions I as a Chief Constable need to take."
"Their role was really important in the engagement and keeping communities informed and aware of what was going on and getting that community intelligence in."
"If I had the money I would bring them back without a shadow of a doubt. "
I had to choose between PSCOs and taking people out of child sexual exploitation, domestic violence and other areas
"It was just a difficult decision - probably the most difficult decision I've had to make in the three years I've been here."
"It is a decision that I regret but it's not a decision I got wrong but I wish I hadn't been put in a position where I had to make that decision."
"But as a result of that we actually went into a much more detailed analysis of how we would use our neighbourhood teams and remodelled our neighbourhood policing."