Violence Against Officers Must Carry Real Consequences

Thugs who intentionally injure police officers should receive a mandatory prison sentence, South Yorkshire Police Federation says.

It followed an LBC investigation finding police, prison officers, doctors, nurses and teachers were assaulted every two minutes in Britain.

Federation Chair Steve Kent said people’s “common sense and decency” had “degraded” over the past 30 years, no longer fearing the consequences of attacking someone.

He said: “I’m surprised we’re talking about one every 2 minutes. We see them every day coming through the systems in our force.

“I’ve been assaulted numerous times as a police officer and I’m sure every officer’s the same.

“It’s just not acceptable and I think what the attitude is now is that it’s fair game.”

Steve said a “lack of punishment” meant there was no deterrent for offenders and called on the media to do more to highlight the scale of the problem.

He added: “You’ve got a perfect storm of not enough punishment and also constant attacks and vilification of us [in the press].

“It almost seems to justify people that they can behave in this way.

“I’ve always said any kind of assault involving injury to an officer – or any of our public sector colleagues – should be mandatory prison.

“Then people know ‘Oh dear, if I punch, kick, spit at a police officer or a nurse, I’m going to prison automatically’ – it will spread and it will have the desired effect.

“The sentences are there. Make it mandatory and it’ll get dealt with”.