Police could be told to let violent suspects go
POLICE leaders have said they would tell officers to let violent suspects go if they were not “backed up” following an attack on a female Pc.
Ken Marsh, the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said it was not worth officers putting themselves at risk if they were going to be assaulted just for doing their job.
He spoke out after video footage emerged of two police officers locked in a violent struggle as they tried to make an arrest in Merton, south London, on Saturday. A female officer was filmed being kicked to the ground during the routine traffic stop, before being left lying dazed in the road clutching her head feet away from a passing bus.
Her male colleague was dragged around in the road as he tried to stop a suspect in a white tracksuit escaping.
The female officer tried to use incapacitant spray on the assailants but to no effect. Both officers were treated for head injuries and cuts in hospital following the attack.
A member of the public helped the male officer in the struggle but several cars went past without stopping and the person filming the attack did not appear to step in and help.
One man – Martin Payne, 20, from Croydon – was detained and charged with assault under new legislation designed to toughen up sentences for those who attack emergency workers. The other two suspects remain at large.
Mr Marsh said: “Are we now in a society where, if we think we can’t detain somebody, we just let them go? It’s just
not worth it. We’re going to come to a point where we’re going to start pushing messages out to our colleagues, ‘Risk-assess it dynamically and, if you think you can’t detain a person, just let them go.’ We don’t come to work to get assaulted – and if we’re not going to be backed up in what we’re doing, then what is the point?”
He told The Daily Telegraph that police numbers and finances had been “stripped to the bone”, warning that an officer in London was attacked every hour. He said that the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act would only help if it was legislated correctly and the powers were used.
The latest attack follows a spate of assaults on female officers.
Last month, footage emerged of armed robber Owen Smith dragging Pc Ellie Young from a patrol car as he tried to flee a raid on an Esso garage in Horsham. She was left with arm, leg, shoulder and neck injuries.
Smith was jailed for 14 years at Hove Crown Court for his part in the raid.
Pc Anne Bloomfield was left with a fractured skull after being attacked with a champagne bottle. She had stepped in to support a colleague who had been punched and kicked at a property in Nottingham.
Lee Carl Wright was charged with GBH without intent and was jailed for just two years and eight months.
Chris Bryant, the Labour MP who sponsored the new legislation, said the footage of the Merton attack “turned your stomach”.
But he warned: “The bill will only be effective if there are enough police officers to implement it and there is the will to act. We need to have the police, the prosecutors and the courts all lined up and taking it seriously but they also need Government backing.”
Dave Keen, the Nottinghamshire Police Federation chairman, said the force was “at a tipping point” and that criminals were becoming aware that back-up was further away.
“Policing is at risk,” he said. “Every day, officers are going out at fear of being attacked.” ♦ A quadruple stabbing in north London has been linked by police to a minicab shooting 24 hours previously.
Four men, all in their 20s, were stabbed in Fraser Road, Edmonton, shortly before 6pm on Sunday. Three remained in hospital yesterday morning. Their conditions were not known.
The stabbings came around 24 hours after a 16-year-old boy and two men suffered injuries when a shotgun was fired at a minicab less than a mile away.
One person was arrested and police are continuing with their inquiries.