There needs to be a change in the law and a shift in attitudes towards the police, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said, as it emerged that an average of 137 officers were assaulted every day in the UK.<\/p>\n
Last year, there were 50,259 assaults on UK officers \u2013 40,330 in England and Wales, 6,657 in Scotland, and 3,272 in Northern Ireland. That equates to one officer being assaulted every 10 minutes.<\/p>\n
South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said: \u201cI\u2019ve been banging the drum for years to say there needs to be an automatic prison sentence for any assault involving an injury against a police officer or our emergency service colleagues.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil that message gets out there \u2013 and people understand the risk of assaulting officers \u2013 it\u2019s going to continue happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that it didn\u2019t help that there was a \u201chostile atmosphere\u201d around policing at the moment, saying: \u201cI think that certain portions of the media and the Government undermine the hard work of police officers and give a false narrative about police officers being corrupt. That adds up to a feeling of almost subtle permission. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019m not saying the press is advocating that people assault police officers, but the public might think everybody hates the police, so no one\u2019s going to care if I assault one.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we need to see the headline mandatory figures to say that if you assault an officer and injure them, you\u2019re going to go to prison. People will definitely think twice then, because of the automatic consequences. And we need to start to see some support for police officers. I\u2019ve never known a time when there\u2019s been such a hostile atmosphere towards policing.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was shocking that an officer was assaulted every 10 minutes, Steve said, but many national media outlets were not reporting this: \u201cThey tend not to want to show anything that shows the plight of police officers. It\u2019s almost like we are society\u2019s punch bag now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve said he was seeing more officers who had been assaulted or had a near miss coming to the Federation office. He said: \u201cThere may well be an element that people are more empowered to report assaults now, but there\u2019s no two ways about it, assaults on officers are increasing. And the general nature of assaults is also becoming more serious. Until there\u2019s legislative change and an attitude change nationally, I don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to see this rise dampened any time soon. It\u2019s not acceptable that our officers have to put up with it.\u201d<\/p>\n