Sharp rise in assaults shows stark reality for British police officers

Police officers in the United Kingdom were subjected to almost 2.5 million assaults over a 12-month period, the Police Federation said in a report released on Sunday.

The federation said the figures reveal the horrific extent and frequency of assaults on police officers.

Estimates based on data from a welfare survey suggest that there were potentially more than two million (2,113,602) unarmed physical assaults on officers over a 12-month period, and a further 302,842 assaults using a deadly weapon during the same period.

According to the federation, this means there were a total of 2,416,445 attacks, equating to an officer being assaulted at the rate of one every four minutes.

Until now the estimate had been that around 23,000 police officers are assaulted every year, but the new figures presented a stark reality of the job and what police officers have to deal with.

A spokesman for the federation said :“It has been difficult to determine the actual number of police officers assaulted every year.

“Much of this has been down to what data has been used, taking into consideration inconsistencies and a variety of recording processes .”

“Incidents are also often under-reported, further contributing to an incomplete national picture on what is a growing concern,” the spokesman said.

Steve White, the federation’s chairman for England and Wales said: “We always knew that 23,000, whilst bad enough, was not the true picture, but 2.4 million is beyond anyone’s expectations and totally unacceptable.”

Last year the federation, which is seen as the trade union for police officers, raised the issue with Britain’s interior ministry, the Home Office, about the official figures not giving a true picture of the number of police assaults per year.