Figures obtained from police forces show that there has been roughly one inquiry for every seven of the civilian patrollers now employed, for alleged rule-breaking ranging from criminal activity to rudeness.
The findings will add to criticism of PCSOs, who have been controversial since they were introduced in 2002 by then-home secretary David Blunkett as a cheaper alternative to regular officers.
Supporters say they offer a reassuring uniformed presence on the streets, but critics – including many regular officers – have branded them "plastic policemen" or "CHIMPS", which stands for "completely hopeless in most policing situations".A survey of forces across England and Wales, using the Freedom of Information Act, has shown a high number of disciplinary actions and dismissals.
There have been at least 2,233 investigations into PCSOs for alleged misconduct. By comparison, a total of 16,300 PCSOs are now serving nationally.
Since the role was created 167 PCSOs have been charged with crimes, while 276 have been dismissed.
In one case, a PCSO resigned last year after he was found to have an arsenal of weapons at his home and to be a member of the British National Party.
Another PCSO was sacked for abusing the police computer to look up personal details of women he met on nights out.
The new figures provide the most solid evidence yet to back previous reports which suggested that PCSOs are more likely than regular officers to be accused of gross misconduct.
Simon Reed, vice-chairman of the Police Federation which represents front line officers, said: "These numbers seem very high and suggest that PCSOs are being asked to handle situations that they are not equipped to deal with.
"They are supposed to be merely a visible patrolling presence, and are not expected to engage with confrontational situations.
"In comparison there were 31,000 complaints about police officers in 2008-09 but there are 140,000 of them, compared with 16,000 PCSOs, and they deal with six million recorded crimes and a million stop-and-searches a year."
The Conservatives have effectively sounded the death knell for PCSOs in parts of the country by announcing that if they win the general election they will remove rules which force chief constables to spend a slice of funding on the civilians, thus freeing them to hire additional police officers instead.
PCSOs have no powers of arrest but can hand out fines for a range of minor crimes, including littering and parking offences.
The 2,200 inquiries have been led by each force's professional standards department, which look into allegations of corruption and misconduct.
The true number of investigations is sure to be far higher because five of the 43 forces failed to provide figures for inquiries.
They included West Yorkshire, which was the only force in England and Wales to refuse to supply any information at all about the number of PCSOs who faced investigations or were charged with crimes.
Britain's largest force, the Metropolitan Police, has staged 311 misconduct inquiries into PCSOs. After this, the highest totals were 165 in Hampshire and 151 in the West Midlands.
Four other forces – Cambridgeshire, Devon and Cornwall, Essex and Leicestershire – have staged more than 100 inquiries.
The Met saw the largest number of dismissals, with 117, and the highest number of PCSOs charged with a criminal offence, with 107.
Of the forces which provided figures, six refused to disclose how many PCSOs had been charged with a criminal offence. They were Essex, Greater Manchester, Northamptonshire, Northumbria, Thames Valley and West Midlands.
Superintendent Peter Turner, from Greater Manchester Police, said: "Since they were introduced, PCSOs have played a pivotal role in modern policing.
"However, as they are part of the GMP family the highest standards of professional conduct are expected of them, and should there be any suspicion that they have fallen below this standard, the Professional Standards Branch will carry out thorough inquiries."
In 2007, Paul Kelly, the head of the Police Federation's Greater Manchester branch, described PCSOs as a "failed experiment" which should be abandoned, after it emerged that two of the civilians had stood by as a boy drowned in a pond in Wigan, because they were not trained to carry out water rescues.
In 2006 Terence Davison, a PCSO with Northumbria Police, was found to have used the police computer to delve into the personal files of women he met on social occasions, looking up their addresses and other information.
He was sacked when a colleague saw that he had accessed the file of a relative who was being sought by officers. He admitted four charges of accessing details without authorisation.
Ellis Hammond, of Bexley, south-east London, a PCSO with the Met, was allowed to resign after he was found to have a stun gun, CS spray and combat knives at his home.
Hammond, a BNP member, was prosecuted and handed a conditional discharge in March last year.
The Metropolitan Police Authority reported last year that a disproportionately high number of its CSOs were facing disciplinary proceedings.
Of 4,000 employed by the force in 2007-08, 35 were accused of gross misconduct, including computer misuse, inappropriate conduct and driving offences. Of those, 20 were dismissed from the service.
