SOUTH Yorkshire Police Federation wants the courts to back up officers by using the sentencing powers they have to properly punish those who assault them.<\/p>\n
The number and severity of assaults on police officers have risen sharply over the past few years, leading to specific legislation being brought into to protect them and other emergency services staff.<\/p>\n
The Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018,gives judges and magistrates the option of handing down 12-month jail tariffs to those who attack blue light workers.<\/p>\n
The CPS prosecuted more than 50 assaults a day in the first year of legislation and 90% of those were assaults on police officers, figures show.<\/p>\n
But the increased sentencing powers are still not being used, says the Federation.<\/p>\n
Chairman Steve Kent wants assaults on officers which result in them being seriously injured to incur an automatic one-year prison term.<\/p>\n
He explained: \u201cAssaults which results in a broken nose, teeth, or similar should have a mandatory prison sentence. Rather than offering the sentence as an option, that should be removed. It should be automatic if people are found guilty of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the only thing that\u2019s going to make a difference because that would then receive a lot of publicity.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll it takes then is for a number of people to go to prison for something that they wouldn\u2019t have done before, and the message gets out there. It\u2019s about the deterrent factor.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of these criminals who assault police officers pay attention to the Protect the Protectors Bill because they\u2019re not seeing the results yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need to turn the egg timer upside down and actually make it an automatic offence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve added that horrific attacks on officers are still occurring regularly.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWe\u2019ve seen cases where officers have been pinned to the floor and punched and we had a case where an officer was throttled. These are the kind of cases that automatic sentencing should be for.\u201d<\/p>\n
It would also take away the \u2018postcode lottery\u2019 problem of some courts being more lenient than others, Steve added.<\/p>\n