PEOPLE who assault police officers, especially during the coronavirus crisis, should automatically go to prison.<\/p>\n
That is the view of South Yorkshire Police Federation, after national figures showed a 14% year-on-year increase in assaults on 999 workers since lockdown began.<\/p>\n
Chairman Steve Kent said there had been a rise in the number of South Yorkshire officers being assaulted since the beginning of lockdown.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI don\u2019t know why it\u2019s happening. Whether it\u2019s that the undesirable elements within our communities are more frustrated and so are wanting to lash out and obviously police officers are the few people they come across, I don\u2019t know. But there\u2019s no doubt I\u2019ve seen a rise in it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see on a pretty much bi-weekly basis that an officer has been assaulted one way or another.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing that concerns me about it is that there\u2019s no consistency with the sentencing. We\u2019ve seen a handful of cases where cops have been coughed at, spat at, and they\u2019ve received suspended sentences and they\u2019ve even received curfews during a lockdown. What\u2019s the point of that? That\u2019s a complete waste of time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn other cases we\u2019ve seen the courts come down hard and people have received custodial sentences, which I welcome, but for me it has to be mandatory and automatic. Everybody talks about protecting our emergency services during this crisis. Well, we need to make no exceptions. Guilty, prison, the end. That\u2019s how it needs to be. Simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Figures from the National Police Chiefs\u2019 Council (NPCC) show there has been a spike in assaults on emergency workers, even though overall crime has fallen by a quarter since lockdown began in March. Data from the Crown Prosecution Service reveals that there were 313 prosecutions for assaults on emergency workers in the first month of lockdown.<\/p>\n
Home Secretary Priti Patel has said she is looking to double the maximum prison sentence for such offenders to two years.<\/p>\n
Steve said he supported this measure, adding: \u201cIt would definitely be appreciated. But the existing sentences are there, they\u2019re just not being used.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve described handing out custodial sentences for assaults on officers as a \u201cpostcode lottery\u201d, with neighbouring force Derbyshire sending more offenders to prison than South Yorkshire. He said people going to prison for coughing at a police officer during the Covid-19 crisis \u201csends out a great message and is a great deterrent\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cOur message to officers is we will continue to back you. We\u2019ll continue to push this as much as we possibly can. Our views are that people need to come down hard on this in the courts, and we won\u2019t rest as a Federation until sentences start to reflect the crimes. Assaults on police officer, prison. It\u2019s the only way we\u2019re going to deal with this.\u201d<\/p>\n