SOUTH Yorkshire Police officers will be given all the kit they need to deal with public order offences over the summer, the Federation has said.<\/p>\n
Officers across the country have been at the sharp end of several protests up and down the country from all sides of the political debate.<\/p>\n
Criticism has been levelled at some forces for not giving officers the correct protective kit to effectively deal with the unrest putting them at risk of injury.<\/p>\n
However, South Yorkshire Police Federation Chairman is confident his members will not be put in that situation.<\/p>\n
He has also called for a ban on all protests until the pandemic is over to protect officers from contracting COVID-19.<\/p>\n
Steve explained; \u201cI\u2019m reassured by conversations I\u2019ve had with the chief that our force will take quite a hard stance on any kind of disorder early on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has been some criticism from our Met colleagues that their force\u2019s tactics weren\u2019t robust enough from the outset.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been reassured that ours would be and that our officers would be in full protective gear when required.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thankfully protests and marches in South Yorkshire have so far passed off mostly peacefully, Steve added.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThere was a protest in Sheffield which a large number of people attended, but credit to the people of South Yorkshire, it was peaceful.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a lot of social distancing, and the relations with the police were absolutely great. So I\u2019m hoping we don\u2019t have those problems. But our chief has made it quite clear that he wouldn\u2019t be making the same mistakes that some of the chiefs may have made in terms of applying too much of a soft approach to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would have to deal with this robustly regardless of which faction was being disorderly. A consistent approach is what I\u2019m looking for.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were pleased with our chief\u2019s stance on this \u2013 we are the police, and this is what we\u2019re here to do. We\u2019ve got to be robust in the way that we deal with any kind of disorder.\u201d<\/p>\n
The PFEW has called for a blanket ban on protests during the pandemic, which Steve agrees with.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThey shouldn\u2019t be happening during the pandemic, full stop.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think in reality that is enforceable for us though.\u201d<\/p>\n