Drugs and poker PCSO team 'denigrated police force'

Former PCSO Oguz Batmaz ran a drugs operation

"When I was a policeman we had to be out on the street and we had sergeants chasing us around," recalls councillor Roger Charsley.

So as a former officer, he was particularly shocked when every member of his local safer neighbourhood team in Bromley, south-east London, found themselves being investigated for misconduct for everything from playing poker to cleaning their golf clubs while on duty.

And one PCSO has now been jailed for seven years for helping people steal cannabis and supply cocaine, and keeping the police off the trail of a prisoner.

The team sergeant and a PC were dismissed, and a PC and four PCSOs resigned.

'Lack of supervision'

While investigating the drugs operation run by PCSO Oguz Batmaz from the Mottingham and Chislehurst team in 2010, the Met found officers frequently failed to go out on patrol and claimed overtime that had not been worked.

A covert camera showed one officer went out for runs during the day while another tended to his golf clubs in the office.

Only Batmaz and Nicholas Goodwin, a PCSO, were involved in the criminal misconduct investigation.

Mr Goodwin was acquitted of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office in February.

Batmaz was seen routinely abusing his position, giving police intelligence to a number of criminal contacts so they could commit more crime and avoid being caught.

Local ward councillors Mr Charsley and Charles Rideout were police officers themselves and have been shocked by the case.

Mr Charsley's father, uncles and grandfather were policemen. He retired in 1986.

He said: "This lot have denigrated the police force.

Councillor Roger Charsley comes from a family of former police officers

"I think there's a lack of supervision.

"I see them standing around with their hands in their pockets. We were disciplined."

Eight others have also admitted offences including conspiracy to supply controlled drugs class, stealing cannabis and conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.

Neighbourhood teams were introduced by the Met in 2004 to support the work of local police forces and were subsequently rolled out across the country.

The Met now employs up to 3,000 PCSOs, said a spokeswoman.

'One bad apple'

Labour's Joanne McCartney chairs the London Assembly's Police and Crime Committee.

She said PCSOs on the whole have done a very good job and there was a danger of "one bad apple" tainting the rest.

She said: "Safer neighbourhood teams were introduced as the eyes and ears of the community and they have been very important and valuable."

She raised concerns about supervision levels after teams were re-organised in the last year to mean some wards share sergeants.

The surveillance of the Bromley team predates these changes.

Ms McCartney added: "It's reassuring that it's the Met's internal directorate that has picked this up and taken action. Integrity and trust are at the heart of policing."

Cdr Allan Gibson, of the Met's Directorate of Professional Standards, said last October when the disciplinary procedures finished: "These officers let the whole of the service down with their behaviour. But, more importantly, they let down their local community."

A new set of PCSOs is now in place in Mottingham and Chislehurst.