Re: "#MeToo"
There have been a _significant_ number of police corruption cases which have been traced to PSCOs installed in forces by organised crime groups. UK Police have been trying to keep this under wraps for a long time because widespread knowledge would destroy trust in the service.
One rather famous murder of a PSCO not far away from me in London got rather interesting when investigaters discovered gangland connections and compelling evidence that she + her husband had been using her access to police computers to obtain data on people in their London Asian community in order to commit blackmail offences. It also came out that the Met KNEW this was going on but had chosen not to do anything about it due to lack of resources.
PSCOs are _not_ sworn officers and the security vetting for them is deficient. Back in 2010 UK Police admitted that they know of the issues but can't just dump them or change the vetting as they'd been so stripped of funding that they were critically dependant on PCSO volunteers.
And of course the uk government has stripped away even more funding and paid staff since then.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
