VIEWS FROM THE TOP

POLICE officers are human beings too. I know it’s a shock.

It’s easy to forget the overwhelming majority are decent, hard-working, caring and honest women and men, just trying to protect society.

We must not forget police staff, who do an equally amazing job.

There is a school of thought that being assaulted is just “part of the job” or “what you signed up for”. Well it’s not. How can we encourage a wide range of applicants when that is the attitude?

I and other chief constables started to record all crimes against police officers and staff. The figures were shocking and speak for themselves.

It’s not a more violent place in West Yorkshire, and Covid restrictions last year did not create more assaults on officers, we just recorded them all. I recall with sadness the murders, shootings, stabbings and life-changing injuries I have dealt with when officers and staff have been assaulted.

We in policing appreciate the public outpouring of support at such times. But we need that same public support now, not least because of the daily assaults on officers and staff for just doing their job.

They are punched, kicked, pushed and spat at every day. They are also racially and religiously abused or insulted because of their gender or sexual orientation.

We need a strong stance from the CPS, the courts and the judiciary to prosecute those who assault all public-sector workers.

We need to implement recommendations from the recent national officer and staff safety review.

We also need crossgovernment support for a meaningful Police Covenant where officers and staff are looked after by the state, but this is not happening yet. Worst of all though, last week we saw that police officers working on the frontline of the pandemic, and being assaulted, spat

at and threatened with Covid, were not deemed worthy of a pay rise.

Yet colleagues in local government and the fire service were.

Now that is shocking.