ATTACKS on police officers are becoming more prevalent, with one offender trying to gouge out a South Yorkshire Police officer\u2019s eye in recent weeks, the force\u2019s Federation has said.<\/p>\n
Steve Kent, Federation Chairman, said in his 16 years\u2019 experience spent on a response team, he had seen public attitudes to police assaults deteriorating. Steve said: \u201cWhen I joined the job people didn\u2019t really want to fight cops whereas now they\u2019re happy to.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cIt\u2019s almost become second nature\u2026The recent legislation on assaults on police officers, if applied properly by the courts, will hopefully make a positive difference. But I think we need to look at society as a whole in their attitude towards the police.\u201d<\/p>\n
Home Office statistics revealed this month that force was used so officers could protect themselves from attack 214,000 times between April 2017 and March this year, while officers used force 170,000 times to protect colleagues over the same period. The term \u201cuse of force\u201d ranges from using handcuffs to discharging a firearm. It was the first time these statistics have been collated and published.<\/p>\n
Steve added: \u201cI would say that those figures surprise me but they don\u2019t. In fact coming from a response team I\u2019m actually surprised the figure isn\u2019t much higher. It\u2019s much more common to have to use force to protect ourselves or others, and there seems to be a general attitude in society towards the police and using violence towards and in the presence of police officers just appears to be much more common.\u201d<\/p>\n
Simon Kempton, Operational Policing lead for the Police Federation of England and Wales said although these figures do not give a full picture, they certainly provide a sense of what police officers face day in day out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe decision to use force of any type is never taken lightly by any officer, and all use of force must be lawful, necessary and reasonable in all circumstances,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever it can be the only option when officers need to protect themselves, or members of the public, from dangerous or violent people and the data clearly demonstrates that my colleagues only resort to the use of force where it\u2019s necessary, utilising the minimum level required to deal with the situation.”<\/p>\n
To see the \u2018Police use of force statistics, England and<\/p>\n
Wales: April 2017 to March 2018\u2019 go to: https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/attachment_data\/file\/764894\/police-use-of-force-apr2017-mar2018-hosb3018.pdf <\/a><\/p>\n