ATTACKS ON POLICE SOAR BY A THIRD
RECORD numbers of police officers are being attacked as street violence soars across the UK, figures have revealed.
Assaults on officers have increased by a third in just three years and the numbers are typified by the latest analysis by the Metropolitan Police.
Unpublished figures obtained by the Daily Express show thugs carried out 6,670 assaults on Met officers in the year to June.
This was 24 per cent increase on the previous 12 months and equal to 555 assaults every month, or nearly one an hour. Almost half the incidents resulted in injury.
The horrifying figures reflect the situation nationally with nearly all forces witnessing a rise in attacks.
Ken Marsh, chairman of the Met Police Federation, said: “These figures are appalling. The shocking statistics highlight the daily dangers our colleagues sadly face – there is no such thing as a routine call or a routine job.
Hospital
“Officers should be going home to their families at the end of their shifts not to hospital.”
Dame Cressida Dick, Met Commissioner, said: “I am clear that officers being assaulted will never be ‘just part of the job’.
“I want people to be deterred from assaulting police officers in the first instance, but where they do, I will do everything I can to ensure they are arrested and dealt with properly and handed the maximum penalties.”
The Met police figures are the first to take into account a summer of violent clashes in the capital which saw officers rounded upon as they policed demonstrations and broke up illegal music events.
There were an estimated 23,000 assaults on police officers in England and Wales in 2015/16, 7,903 of which caused injury.
But in 2018/19 – the latest available figures – it rocketed to 30,977 with 10,399 resulting in injury. The Police Federation of England and Wales estimated the overall cost of this was £363,184,132.Writing for the Daily Express today, Home Secretary Priti Patel described the figures as “truly shocking”, saying she was “appalled” at the increase in violence against officers and “won’t stand by and watch this happen”.
Assault covers pushing, shoving or being spat at. But an increasing number of frontline officers, like PC Stuart Outten, are being physically attacked.
He was repeatedly stabbed in the head with a machete after a white van was stopped in Leyton, east London, in August last year. Muhammad Rodwan, 57, from Luton, was jailed for 16 years.
The true number of officers being attacked is likely to be significantly higher than the figures show as many do not report assaults that they consider to be part of the job.
The brutal reality of frontline policing in 2020 comes as the Government pushes to double the maximum sentence for assaulting emergency workers to two years.
Mr Marsh said: “We must also remember behind every assault is a human being – mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, sons and daughters.
“Our hard-working colleagues deserve the greatest of protection. It’s good to hear the Government say the right things around doubling the sentencing of those attacking our cops to two years.
“But we also need to see the backing of the courts in implementing these sentences as a strong deterrent. And it needs to be done consistently.”
Only around a quarter of criminals convicted of attacking the police have been jailed since the law was passed. Of those convicted and jailed, the average sentence was just eight weeks.
The Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act modified the offence of common assault or battery where it is committed against emergency workers with a maximum sentence of 12 months’ imprisonment.
This doubled the maximum penalty from six months for those who attack police, prison staff, custody officers, firefighters and health
workers. If new legislation is brought forward the maximum sentence would be doubled for the second time in two years.
John Apter, national chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: “The rise in assaults on our officers is unacceptable and so is the lack of a deterrent.
“Police officers feel failed by the wider criminal justice system that should be there to support them. It often fails to treat my colleagues as victims, and I have heard people on numerous occasions state it is ‘just part of the job’. All too often the thugs who attack them are let off with little more than a slap on the wrist which sadly proves these points. This must change.
Determined
“We have been relentless in pushing for an increase in maximum jail sentences for those who attack emergency workers and we welcome the Government’s consultation to drive this further.
“However, any further increases in sentencing could be meaningless without the full support of the courts. This should include consistency of sentencing, which is not the case at this time.”
Robert Buckland, Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor, said: “Being punched, kicked or spat at should never be part of the job for our valiant emergency workers who put their lives on the line to keep the public safe.
“Now, more than ever, they must be able to do their extraordinary work without the fear of being attacked or assaulted, which is why we’re determined to look at how our laws can protect them further.
“We will continue to do everything in our power to protect our police, prison officers, firefighters and paramedics.”
ASURGE in violence against police officers is a source of national shame that cannot be ignored. Assaults have risen by a third in three years and Metropolitan Police officers are being attacked at a rate of nearly one an hour.
The men and women who enter the police force risk their lives to ensure that we are safe on our streets and in our homes and for that they deserve our respect and support. It is sickening that brave officers suffer injuries and trauma.
Home Secretary Priti Patel is right to describe the figures as “truly shocking” and pledge that she “won’t stand by and watch” officers suffer assaults.
Plans to double the maximum sentence for attacking emergency workers should be sped up, and all of us should do all we can to assure the police we appreciate the magnitude of their courage and sacrifice.