{"id":2952,"date":"2017-03-03T11:58:30","date_gmt":"2017-03-03T11:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sypfcopperconnection.co.uk\/?p=2952"},"modified":"2017-03-03T11:58:30","modified_gmt":"2017-03-03T11:58:30","slug":"single-crewing-survey-highlights-concerns-over-officer-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sypfcopperconnection.co.uk\/?p=2952","title":{"rendered":"Single crewing survey highlights concerns over officer safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

THERE must be appropriate numbers of police officer to respond to incidents as\u00a0officers never know what they will encounter when they attend an incident, the Chair of South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.<\/p>\n

Zuleika Payne was responding to a survey from the Police Federation of England and Wales which showed seven out of 10 police officers have said they were single-crewed either often or always in the last 12 months.<\/p>\n

The Police Federation of England and Wales said: “Officers frequently\u00a0find themselves\u00a0in vulnerable situations with little or no back up and from a welfare perspective, this is unacceptable.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concern here is around officer safety,\u201d said Zuleika. \u201cWhile it might be argued that forces, in particular South Yorkshire, look at areas of peak demand, they don\u2019t always lend themselves to effectively matching resources to demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at the incident involving PC Lisa Bates [who was attacked with an axe responding to a call]. She could have lost her life. It was a seemingly routine call, it was not during the night, it was not during a weekend or a Bank Holiday.\u00a0Sadly we are sending more and more single crewed officers to incidents of this nature.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNow looking at what unfolded and the horrific injuries that have been sustained, thankfully Lisa had someone with her, but we could be looking at a very different outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe organisation understands that single crewing facilitates us having wider visibility but again that isn\u2019t always achievable because of the lack of police vehicles as well. So on one side you\u2019ve got the urge to have that visible presence, Bobbies on the beat, the police vehicles out there, but you\u2019ve also got to weigh that up against officer safety and effectiveness by being double crewed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zuleika said that currently South Yorkshire Police \u201cdoes not have the luxury of double crewing perhaps as much as we would like to\u201d because of a lack of officer numbers.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cWhat we have to do is look at crime pattern analysis and try as best we can to match resources to demand. But when you speak to the troops they are so strapped for officers that the double crewing does not take place as frequently as we would hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the police service we are the last port of call, so we don\u2019t have the option to say, \u2018No\u2019. But when officers are travelling to\u00a0an incident it\u2019s a question of the call handler doing the background checks to\u00a0consider previous incidents at\u00a0the location, gathering\u00a0any intelligence in order to inform the officer as they travel to the incident\u00a0and also making sure that other units are travelling to assist and offer backup.\u201d<\/p>\n