Concern Over Rise in Assaults on Police Officers
West Yorkshire Police say they are increasingly concerned about risks to officers after additional monitoring procedures undertaken with local staff representatives showed there were 51 assaults on police officers and staff in the last six weeks.
Assistant Chief Constable Mark Milsom said violence against staff was not simply 'part of the job' and highlighted a series of attacks on West Yorkshire Police officers over the past weekend.
On Kentmere Avenue in Seacroft on Saturday morning a Leeds PC intervened in a domestic incident after he saw a man and woman arguing.
The officer, who had been taking a missing child home, was attacked from behind by an another man and knocked unconscious with a serious head injury. The 50-year-old male officer was admitted to hospital and unable to return to duty. A 26-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of assault, and an 18-year-old female was arrested on suspicion of obstructing a police officer. Both have been released on police bail.
In another incident in Leeds a male PC who stopped a car acting suspiciously with four men inside were assaulted by the four men who drove off. The officer was able to remain on duty.
In the early hours of Saturday, officers attended an attack on an ATM machine in Keighley and were assaulted by a group of suspects. One male was arrested following a pursuit.
These assaults took place on another busy weekend for the force in which officers dealt with stabbings, serious assaults, sexual offences and a number of high risk missing people. In the 24 hrs covering Friday evening, the Force received nearly 4700 telephone calls of which over 1000 were 999 calls and Leeds alone attended to 700 incident logs.
ACC Milsom said: "We are becoming increasingly concerned about the number and nature of assaults being committed upon our officers which is highlighted by the incidents this weekend and the additional research we are now undertaking with our local staff representatives.
"We welcome the recent decision of the Home Office to again monitor police assaults having stopped doing so since 2010 - by not doing so, a vital overview of officer safety has been missing during a period of reducing police numbers.
"More importantly, the absence of this national data has limited the understanding of the daily realities our front line officers are now facing and the degree to which they feel they are being supported - although I do feel officers still enjoy the wider support of the general public who respect the difficult job they do in keeping our streets safe.
"We accept the need to be to be fully accountable for our actions. However I cannot remember a time when negative criticism of the police has been so quickly levelled and assumed to be correct, sometimes by high or influential profile voices.
"It is beginning to feel that this negative criticism is having a corrosive and generally debilitating effect on the reputation of individual officers on the street, whose personal responsibility is far removed from the many high profile police issues dominating the headlines. I cannot say with certainty that the constant barrage of criticism of policing is leading to increased levels of assaults upon our officers, but I believe worrying signs are there.
"British policing relies upon us earning the consent of the public and in turn enjoying their support. We do not always get it right and we need to be sorry when this happens and learn from our mistakes. However in the majority of cases, our officers do get it right and act with good intentions.
If you, as I, occasionally wake up in the middle of the night worrying about something important you have to do the following day; next time just take a second to pause, because at that moment, somewhere in West Yorkshire, an officer will be intervening in a violent domestic dispute, tackling a drunk or rescuing a vulnerable person who has been reported missing.
"Our officers are not superheroes, they are ordinary people doing a very difficult job as best they can. Knowing they have their communities behind them makes all the difference."