Riots Left Huge Toll On South Yorkshire Officers

Officers in South Yorkshire are still struggling with the physical and psychological effects of last summer’s widespread riots.

A year on from the unrest, which hit South Yorkshire particularly badly, the service is preparing for the possibility of further incidents this summer; particularly after smaller-scale outbursts of disorder seen in Essex this month.

And South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said that even a year after the widespread riots in the force area, officers are still suffering.

He explained: “It’s coming up to a year, and it’s time for reflection, but to be honest, this has never gone away for us and for our officers. It’s been a constant theme within the psychology of our officers in the last year.

“It almost feels like a continuation and to such an extent that we are still seeing officers coming forward who are needing our counselling services and our injury therapy services as a result of it. So, it’s still a live matter. Our officers are still scarred from it.

“There’s still a lot of feeling out there of hurt because of what happened. It’s not gone away. So, we’re still engaging with it on a daily basis.”

Steve said that should unrest spread again this summer, the force would deal with it differently than last year in terms of supporting officers on the front line.

He said: “Of course, I don’t want to relive that, but I’m reassured that if anything was to happen like this again, any planned demonstration of this ilk, then the policing response would be proactively robust to it. It would be resourced. Lessons will be learned and I’m reassured by that.

“I’m hoping that our officers won’t have to go through anything like that again. You know, we don’t want it to happen, but a lot of cops say they’d do it again tomorrow if they have to, however horrific it was.

“That is is just testament to them and illustrates that our cops are heroes.”