Constables will remain at the heart of policing in Britain, but they could not expect to enjoy a monopoly on law enforcement, Charles Clarke told officers today.

Addressing rank-and-file officers at the Police Federation’s annual conference in Blackpool, the Home Secretary said that the force had to be reformed. He wanted a "genuine dialogue" with officers on the major changes that were being considered.

Police are concerned about the rise of community support officers (CSOs), who can deal with incidents of anti-social behaviour, issue penalty notices for minor offences and detain people for 30 minutes.

Mr Clarke wants a "police family" approach involving uniformed officers, special constables, CSOs and others. This approach was being implemented in some areas but not all, he said.

Jan Berry, chairwoman of the Police Federation, called on the Government to pay more attention to police officers’ wealth of practical experience.

She had hoped Mr Clarke would clarify the role of CSOs. "There remains some confusion. CSOs are not to be used in confrontational situations - that is a role for police officers," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

The Police Federation accepted the reality of CSOs, but wanted to know how they could be funded, Ms Berry said. "The role of the patrolling officer is very complex and you really never know what you're going to expect. But they are here now and the Government is promising 24,000, but it has to demonstrate that it can afford the high number of police officers as well as the CSOs."

Mr Clarke also told the conference that police are burdened with too much red tape from the Home Office and pledged to cut bureaucracy.

He recognised it was the issue that most concerned officers. "I accept the arguments of those who say there is too much bureaucracy in the police service. It exists for a variety of reasons, very little of it coming from the police officers in the Police Federation and a lot of it coming from the Home Office and management in different ways."

Officer safety is another issue on the agenda at the conference and a recent poll indicated that 80 per cent of police would support frontline officers carrying Taser stun guns.

However, the Home Secretary was not enthusiastic about the idea and said it would not increase the efficiency of policing.

Russell Jenkins, Times Correspondent, said that Mr Clarke received warm applause from the audience and most officers were left reassured that the role of constables would be reinforced.

Mr Clarke was challenged by Ms Berry and Michael Todd, chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, to make more explicit the law on handcuff use so officers know when they are entitled to use cuffs to detain a suspect.

Police fear a repeat of the murder of Detective Constable Stephen Oake, who was stabbed to death by al-Qaeda terror suspect Kamel Bourgass during an anti-terrorist raid in Manchester in January 2003.

Officers cannot handcuff suspects without justifiable cause, such as being violent, attempting to escape detention, or if there is any intelligence to suggest they will resist arrest.

Mr Clarke said he was given a range of views on the subject and said the uncertainty was a "disaster". "I am not remotely complacent about it. I am determined to get the right position to see what needs to be done," he said.

But he added: "I am a sceptic in the view ... that changing the law is what solves all these matters. I do think we need to get to an agreed position very quickly."

Meanwhile, the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) conference in Birmingham was discussing the new "British FBI" today. The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) is due to take over investigations into top-level crime from April next year.

Chris Fox, Acpo president, said it was vital that the new agency did not break the link with grassroots policing. "We don’t want it to be another FBI, which has great difficulty maintaining contact with the thousands of forces in the States," he said.

"The local community support officer has got to know how to get his or her information to the very top levels, to Soca. If we get it wrong there will be all sorts of risks."

There could be difficulties in retaining locals contacts, or even Soca and local forces investigating the same suspects without each other’s knowledge, Mr Fox said. "The knack will be to keep that link by moving our officers in and out."

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