Merseyside Police celebrate our Special Constabulary ahead of this years National Volunteers Week

Merseyside Police Specials will take part in a national celebration of the Special Constabulary this weekend (1-2 June).

The National Specials Weekend is a great opportunity for the force to celebrate the contribution of Special Constabulary officers who play a vitally important role and work tirelessly in their local communities.

In 2018 Specials on Merseyside generously volunteered as 96,621 hours of their time, compared to 68,129 in 2017.

The weekend also coincides with National Volunteers Week (1-7 June) where the roles of all volunteers with Merseyside Police will be celebrated.

Various activities and events have been organised across the force including an evening on patrol with the Chief Constable Andy Cooke, local policing operations throughout the week where Specials will be deployed to key areas around the force as well as taking part in induction and training exercises.

Merseyside Police is also using the opportunity to recruit more Specials to join the policing family.

Chief Constable Andy Cooke said: “Our Special Constabulary plays a vital role within Merseyside Police and this weekend is a celebration of all that they give back to our communities.

“Our Specials gave over 96,000 hours of their own time last year to help keep the people of Merseyside safe, and their help is vital to our efforts of making Merseyside safe.

“I’d like to thank each and every one of them for their dedication, time and effort they give throughout the year.”

Citizens in Policing lead, Inspector Tom Welch said: "The National Specials Weekend is a great opportunity for the force to celebrate the contribution of Special Constabulary officers who play a vitally important role and work tirelessly in their local communities. The weekend is also as good a time as any to thank them publicly for their dedication, in terms of time and effort they give throughout the year.

“On Merseyside our Specials are particularly dedicated and give more than double the required 16 hours of their time per month, with Merseyside Specials averaging 36 hours per month, a testament to their dedication in helping our regular officers keep the streets of Merseyside a safe place to live work and visit.

“Merseyside is one of 10 forces nationally who have increased their recruitment of Specials over the past 12 months against a national downward trend in numbers. We continue to work in partnership with individual Specials to ensure that we can learn from each other, so much so that 41% of our operational Specials can patrol independently and have driving courses to make them more effective and able to be deployed on their own.”

Keep up to date with the latest information regarding the Special Constabulary in Merseyside by following @MerseySpecials on Twitter.

If you are interested in becoming a Special Constable visit the Merseyside Police website at www.merseyside.police.uk #joinus #volunteering