After Conservative and Liberal Democrat peers voted down elements of the bill that allowed the home secretary the power to directly intervene by taking operation control of individual force's activities, the home secretary, David Blunkett, was forced to introduce some last-minute amendments. These included involving the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Association of Police Authorities in decisions on when to intervene at failing police forces. There is also variation between forces. Chief officers should satisfy themselves that there is an operational requirement to designate specific powers. Any increase will have additional training/cost requirements, potential personal safety implications, create possible public confusion and blur the roles between PCSOs and warranted officers.

Powers to enforce local authority bylaws remain unchanged but require these to be specifically designated. To prevent confusion, it is helpful for PCSOs to have consistent powers throughout a force area but there is nothing to prevent PCSOs in different parts of a force area from being designated with different powers, depending on local need. contravening section 34 (prohibition of off-road driving/driving other than a road) of the Road Traffic Act 1988. Section 46 of the Police Reform Act 2002 creates offences relating specifically to designated persons (including PCSOs), namely: The Policing and Crime Act 2017 and the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 created additional powers. Chief officers should decide which they will grant to PCSOs in their force areas based on community need. For example, granting the power to deal with an offence under Section 5(1) or 8(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 involving a contravention of a prohibition or restriction that relates to stopping, waiting or parking at or near a school entrance may be wholly appropriate given local public feeling and what is a regular community problem in many forces. Community safety accreditation schemesThe bill's proposals on police working conditions coincided with a separate shake-up of the police pay structure – including the Home Office's decision to pursue a reduction in overtime – and sparked widespread anger among front-line police. The reforms were overwhelmingly rejected by members of the Police Federation of England and Wales: 91% of the federation's 84,000 members voted against the changes. The Act also reflected the general tendency of left-wing government to centralise power. Prime Minister at the time of the Act Tony Blair had expressed this concern specifically in the context of policing, suggesting that to allow municipal governments to establish their own police forces would give rise to a risk of ‘Balkanisation’ (the geopolitical situation in which a region fragments into uncooperative or even hostile smaller regions). This attitude is likely to have motivated the increase in Home Office control over police strategy and management. Perhaps the most prominent substantive provision of the Act which is regularly used by forces today is section 59, which allows police to seize vehicles which are being used in an anti-social manner. This has proved a valuable tool in combatting crime and remains in place today. Incapacitant spray is a prohibited weapon under Section 5(1)(b) of the Firearms Act 1968. Section 54(3) of the Act states that a person is exempt from Section 5(1)(b) if they are:

Grants the home secretary the power to force a police force to produce an action plan if the force is judged to be inefficient or ineffective.Section 3 of the Criminal Law Act 1967, Section 117 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1884 and common law (breach of the peace and self-defence) provide legislation around reasonable force. Critics of the bill said the home secretary's proposed new powers compromised police autonomy and created the risk that the police could be manipulated for political purposes. A baton is an offensive weapon by virtue of Section 1(1) of the Prevention of Crime Act 1953 as it is specifically made for causing injury.

Vehicles should be issued with a warning first, unless this is impracticable. [5] An example of it being impractical would be the offenders leaving the vehicle/making off or the vehicle being unregistered and unable to be traced - therefore a warning unable to be placed. If an officer also reasonably believes a warning has been given within the past 12 months - whether or not recorded on the Police National Computer or similar system, they can seize the vehicle immediately. Community support officers are civilians employed and trained by local police forces but to a different standard than police officers. Unlike police constables, community support officers do not have a duty to act: they make a discretionary decision in each situation. They only have powers when they are on duty and in uniform, and their powers are limited to their force's boundaries. Creates the community support officer, a civilian uniformed non-warranted officer working in England and Wales.The Policing and Crime Act 2017 amended Section 38 of the Police Reform Act 2002, which enables chief officers of police to designate any person who is employed by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner and is under the direction and control of that chief officer as a police community support officer.