Fear Of Repercussions Is Stopping Officers Using Appropriate Force

Officers are becoming reluctant to use appropriate force due to fear of repercussions, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

The head of the Police Superintendents’ Association in England and Wales, Nick Smart, recently told The Telegraph that police officers fear they are gambling with their career when they use force to tackle criminals. He said his colleagues had so little faith in the misconduct system that they were losing confidence on the streets.

South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent agreed with Nick’s assessment, saying: “We’ve seen recent high-profile cases elsewhere in the country where officers have been sanctioned for using force in quite understandable circumstances.

“There’s two aspects to this. The first aspect is that officers are reluctant to use force because they’re worried about the consequences.

“They’ve seen the high-profile cases and they’ve got no faith in the system, they’ve got little faith in the IOPC, they’ve got little faith in the legislation that protects them.

“The second aspect is that this means officers are more likely to be assaulted, because they’re not going into situations being confident about using the full amount of force that they need to. That leaves them exposed to getting assaulted.

“Officers need to be decisive and firm, although of course it must be a proportionate use of force.”

Steve added: “There is a small ray of light in that some recent cases have opened the public’s eyes to the wider issues about police force.

“But we need to see the Government and the press supporting our officers in being robust, which, let’s be fair, 99.9% of the public would expect us to be.”