STRONGER sentences need to be handed out if attacks on police officers are to be deterred, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.<\/p>\n
Chair Steve Kent (pictured) was speaking after it emerged that there was a significant increase in attacks last month. There were 98 attacks on police officers in the seven weeks to 12 July, compared to 71 in 2019.<\/p>\n
Steve said: \u201cWe had an officer who was coughed and spat at during lockdown who received a curfew. That is just an absolute insult to policing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are just are not seeing the deterrent out there. I very warmly welcome the Government looking at doubling the sentences. I welcome the sentence of 12 months in the first place – but we see time and time and time again, so many assaults on officers where the sentence is in weeks, not months, if at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the courts are treating this with a feather duster, it is just not going to change because there is no deterrent. We sometimes see that there is a lack of respect in public, but what better illustration than that is there that our emergency services and police officers are the ones who are getting assaulted increasingly often? It is just totally unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve said the courts need to be held to account in terms of sentencing, and that the system is akin to a post-code lottery, with some regions handing out harsher sentences than others.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cIf there\u2019s an assault with injury to a police officer it needs to be a mandatory prison sentence. Give the prison sentence length depending on how serious the injury is. Slapping an officer in the face is nowhere as near as breaking a cheekbone. But there needs to just be an expectation that if you hit a police officer, you know you\u2019re in court and you\u2019re going to prison. That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce that message gets out, the deterrent will be there. And that is needed, because unfortunately the courts cannot be trusted to administer these offences properly and to give out the correct sentences.\u201d<\/p>\n