Britons, what is this article talking about?

Sounds like 1984, Orwell.

Who said, “Those who would trade their liberty for saftey deserver neither”?

Community Wardens. They’re wannabe policemen. Plastic cops. They’re paid by local councils to do the work that the police are too busy to do. I don’t think they have the right to arrest someone. As that article suggests, most of what they seem to do is pretty useless.

What he’s talking about are police comunity support officers. Their job is to support the work of the police. It’s sort of like a teachers asistant except for police. They do not have the same powers as the police ie they can’t arrest suspects but can detain a susspect while awaiting a police officer to the actual work. To be honest their role is a bit fuzzy and its genearlly seen as policing on the cheap. The idea is you have a load of people wandering about in uniform and this deters crime.

We do have volunteer police offices called special constables who hilariously get the same training as the regular ploice and do have all the same powers of arrest etc

The refernce to “red and white prefect badge” people refers to the habit of schools giving a badge (red and white with the word prefect on it) to well behaved pupils giving them limited power over other pupils – the equivalent of “hall monitors” in th US I suppose

Thank you. In my city we have “Police Service Aides,” but they mainly deal with traffic accidents and parking violations.

I can see now how the prefect badge reference was intended. Ouch.

rise of the footsoldier is good exampel.the law is tought but police understandable.