Over the past four years, 43 South Yorkshire officers have been injured when their police cars were deliberately rammed by offenders.<\/p>\n
According to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, in 2025, 457 UK officers reported injuries after being involved in incidents where police vehicles were deliberately rammed. This is up hugely on the previous year (244 officers injured).<\/p>\n
The research was prompted by reports of incidents stating that a criminal was \u201cunarmed\u201d, even though that person had used their car as a weapon against police officers. Many car-ramming incidents happen when people are trying to avoid arrest, and can result in officers being seriously injured.<\/p>\n
South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said: \u201cThese new figures are very concerning. There\u2019s sometimes rhetoric from police leaders who say we’re damaging police cars. But if you give criminals a message that they can use cars with impunity and they’re not going to be pursued and they’re not going to be dealt with properly, then the road will become a safe haven for criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve has previously spoken out in favour of bull bars on police cars to protect cars and officers, and he explained: \u201cThere needs to be some kind of mechanism on police cars to stop them being taken out of action by someone lightly tapping them on the front of the car.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also said that the Government should look at the idea of making ramming a police car an aggravated offence: \u201cFor me, hitting someone with a car is no different from hitting someone with a baseball bat, but one of them will carry a significantly longer sentence than the other.<\/p>\n
There’s been some catastrophic near-misses around the country, as well as in our force. It is only a matter of time before an officer is, sadly, seriously injured or worse, by being rammed.\u201d<\/p>\n