http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1851825,00.html
Marian FitzGerald
"Many police officers realise that an expansion of summary powers will be counterproductive. A policeman's lot in today's criminal justice system is not a happy one, many officers tell me. Twenty years ago their influence on the system was drastically cut back with the creation of the Crown Prosecution Service. This government has now transferred the power to charge to the CPS as well. So officers spend endless time processing cases over which they have no further control once they've fed them into the system, and the outcomes of which they may never know. Meanwhile, in response to public demand, the bobbies on the beat are often police community support officers (PCSOs), who don't even have the power of arrest in the first place."
