[quote="powdermonkey"]The BBC report includes the following "they responded to reports " which I assumed meant they had been sent by control. A reasonable assumption I would suggest.[/quote]

Never assume....

I really find the continuation of the single crewing policy shocking - that is poor

[quote] The PCSOs were talking to two members of the public on Gidlow Lane in Wigan when they saw a man being assaulted further up the road by another man.

They ran towards the fight shouting to the attacker to stop, but he pointed the gun at them and threatened to shoot them, ordering them not to come any closer. The victim of the attack got up from the floor and ran off.

The gunman got into the rear passenger seat of a silver BMW which was driven away. The incident took place at around 10pm on November 12. A 28 year-old man has been arrested in connection with the incident and has been bailed pending further enquiries.

Det Con Faye Johnson appealed to the victim of the attack and the tow members of the public to come forward.

She said: “We are doing all we can to locate this man, who attacked another individual and threatened two PCSOs.” [/quote]
Nice to read the gunman has already been arrested, that is some comfort straight off, now we need the victim of the attack! what a day!

The BBC report includes the following "they responded to reports " which I assumed meant they had been sent by control. A reasonable assumption I would suggest.

They didn't get sent by anyone.....

[url]http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/gunman-threatens-shoot-two-police-10464031#ICID=nsm[/url]

In view of the recent tragic events in Paris we had an extended briefing yesterday reminding us of taking precautions whilst out and about, station security etc. There has been no change to our single crewing policy and I don't expect one either, as there's not much we as PCSO's could do to prevent an attack. It's more about monitoring certain factors such as community tension, religion based hate crime and gathering intelligence.

I was somewhat dismayed today to find out just how poor the quality of our external CCTV cameras are. So bad that you can't read a registration plate on a vehicle parked outside our front door.

Meanwhile, it's worth remembering that we never know where a threat may come from and I would question the reasoning behind the person who sent two PCSO's to an ongoing assault in this incident in which, fortunately, they weren't harmed :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-34855840