Scotland Yard officers use ‘force’ every 10 minutes

 Officers in Britain’s largest police service use “force” at a rate of around once every 10 minutes, according to the first figures of their kind.

Constabularies in England and Wales have been compiling data on the techniques deployed during arrests, detentions and public order operations.

Since the start of April, officers have had to fill out a form every time they use handcuffs, CS spray, police dogs or draw a baton.

Scotland Yard today published its first set of data, which showed 12,605 incidents of force against people by individual officers were registered in the three months to the end of June.

The tally is equivalent to an average of 139 instances a day, or nearly six every hour.

Of the incidents, 10,925 were against men, 1,643 against women and 37 against transgender individuals.

Just over half involved males aged between 18 and 34, while 45 per cent of the individuals subject to force were white, 36 per cent black and 10 per cent from the Asian community.

Nearly 14 per cent of people were believed to have mental health issues.