'Mayhem threat' of street wardens

David Blunkett's plans for a new breed of crime-fighting civilian wardens could increase tension and create " mayhem" in inner-city areas, a former Home Office adviser will warn today.

Criminologist Dr Marian FitzGerald said the police auxiliaries, who will be authorised to use force to detain suspects and hand out spot fines for litter-dropping, dogfouling and drunkenness, could be prime targets for corruption.

And she warns that in high-crime areas the uniformed patrols might be very unpopular and set back police relations.

The Community Support Officers are the centre-piece of Labour's police reforms which are due to feature in a Bill at the end of the month. They will patrol under the control of a senior police officer and are designed to free police to deal with more serious offences. They will carry handcuffs and will be trained on issues like the safe use of restraint techniques, but they will not have truncheons, batons or CS spray and their key role will be "community-type work".

But Dr FitzGerald will tell a London conference it is "improbable" the auxiliaries will represent the communities they patrol. "I think it will be extremely difficult to monitor the way many exercise their powers and the extent to which the information they receive is shared with others who could exploit it for commercial, criminal or personal purposes."