'Attacks on cops should result in automatic jail' says South Yorkshire Police Federation Chairman

Steve Kent was speaking after new Government figures revealed incidents where police officers had to use force to protect themselves went up by nine per cent in the last financial year, reaching 425,721.

The figures also showed that 19,758 officers were injured in such incidents with 299 suffering severe injuries.

Mr Kent said South Yorkshire Police has seen an increase in real terms and he believes it is because punishments for assaults on police officers are not working.

“We now have a system in place in our force where we get notified of any assault involving injury of officers. We absolutely have seen an increase in that in real terms,” he said.

“There seems to be an attitude that it’s far more acceptable to assault officers,” he said. “I think the punishment isn’t there, and I have campaigned, and I will continue to campaign, that any assault involving injury should carry an automatic custodial sentence for an emergency service worker: paramedics, cops and firefighters. Everybody.”

In December figures revealed that 15 assaults on police officers were reported each week in South Yorkshire.

One officer, Lisa Bates, was left with a fractured skull, broken leg and partially severed finger after being assaulted by a man with an axe she responded to a report of a domestic incident at a flat in Gleadless Valley.

Mr Kent places some of the blame for the increase in attacks on cops on the rhetoric surrounding policing, which may have encouraged certain “undesirable” members of the public to assault officers.

“We’re seen as easy targets. Cops need some backing right now, and we shouldn’t all be lambasted for the actions of a tiny few,” he said.

The last two years have seen a string of police service controversies, including the murder of Sarah Everard by off-duty Metropolitan police officer Wayne Couzens.

More recently, trust in the Metropolitan Police was damaged further by its failure to respond to allegations about PC David Carrick, 48, who carried out 85 serious offences, including rapes, over 17 years.

The scandal forced current Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to apologise, saying the force had “let women and girls down”.

Last month, South Yorkshire Police officer Paul Hinchcliffe, 46, was found guilty of sexually assaulting a young woman in a pub.

Mr Kent said: “Our charging rate in this force for assaults on police is actually exceptionally high. Credit due to the force on that. What is absolutely failing is when the courts are dealing with it at the end.

“One of our reps has made a suggestion, which we’re going to uphold. We are going to pledge that any officer assaulted on duty, if they want a Federation Rep to be with them at court as a support mechanism, we will do that.

“If an officer gets a broken nose and they’re going to court, they’re a victim of crime and we will get a rep there if they want one. A lot of our officers now are so young, they’ve never been to court before, so I think it’s really important that the Federation can make a pledge to support our colleagues in this way.”