Lockdown fuels rise in police assaults

Police forces across the UK have suffered a 21 per cent increase in assaults on their officers over the lockdown period.

Figures from 31 forces show that at least 7,863 instances of assault were recorded over the first three months of lockdown, compared with 6,505 for the same period in 2019.

This comes as a recent study involving 40,000 police officers and staff showed that 88 per cent of officers said they had been assaulted during their career, with 39 percent having been attacked in the past year.

Leicestershire Police recorded the most substantial increase of 102 per cent, with 205 cases noted in the first three months of lockdown, up from 101 the previous year. Leicestershire Police’s Chief Constable Simon Cole said a “particularly distasteful trend” of offenders spitting and coughing on officers and threatening to infect them with coronavirus has also developed countrywide.

He said :“The rise in assaults has huge impacts on staff both physically and mentally, and it has a huge impact on communities.”

He added: “I think officers and staff know that they have to take risks on occasion, and they understand that. But you can also see that they’re concerned.”

Some 38 offenders spat on Leicestershire Police officers in the first three months of lockdown, and coughing entered the offence records with 10 incidents in 2020, up from zero.