“Any assault on a police officer involving a serious injury should be automatic jail.”

THAT was South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent’s response to new figures showing that 37,000 physical assaults on police officers took place across England and Wales in the year ending March 2021, with figures expected to increase even further for the next year.

Steve said that the risk to officers on the streets was “appalling at the minute”.

He continued: “Officers are going out there with their heads down. They’re going out embarrassed, and they shouldn’t be. They should be going out and being proud.

“The force’s charge rate for assaults on police officers is well over 90%. It’s very good. What’s happening is that the courts are letting us down. For example, two months ago an officer suffered lacerations to his eyeballs and the person walked free from court with a suspended sentence.

“I’ll say it until I’m blue in the face: any assault on a police officer involving a serious injury should be automatic jail. No ifs, no buts. We’re talking about broken noses, black eyes, cuts, bites, something that leaves a lasting effect. The message will get out and people will think twice.”

PFEW Chair Steve Hartshorn told LBC Radio last week: “Being hit, kicked, potentially shot at, spat at, coughed in your face when someone tells you they’ve got a really incredibly horrible disease… It has an effect – it doesn’t ever go away. People underestimate that we are human beings, it does hurt and it’s unacceptable.”