Rise In Assaults on Police During Covid-19 Crisis

1 June 2020

The deterrents for assaulting police officers are not harsh enough, the Chairman of Essex Police Federation has said, as national figures show a 14% year-on-year increase in assaults on 999 workers since lockdown began.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) released figures that show there has been a spike in assaults on emergency workers, even though overall crime has fallen by a quarter since lockdown began in March.

Data from the Crown Prosecution Service reveals that there were 313 prosecutions for assaults on emergency workers in the first month of lockdown.

Essex Police Federation Chairman Steve Taylor said: “We have to look at the deterrent factor that the current laws and legislations provide. It is a reasonable question to ask: ‘Are they set right? Is the deterrent high enough?’. The Protect The Protectors campaign has lobbied on this for years, trying to make exactly that point.”

Home Secretary Priti Patel is looking to increase the maximum sentence for such offenders to two years. Steve supports this measure, saying: “Increasing the sentencing powers keeps it on the agenda, it keeps it in the minds of magistrates across the county, so that when these people assault our members that way, we really are able to maximise the penalties involved, in the hope that it turns the heads of those that might think it’s acceptable.

“In no way, shape or form is it ever acceptable to assault someone who’s simply trying to do their job, particularly when that job is, as it is for our members, solely based on trying to keep a community safe.”

Steve said that the Federation worked hard to support officers who had been assaulted, as they were victims of crime. He said: “That means that it’s investigated like any other violent crime, and not just written off as, ‘It’s the police, you’ve got to expect a bit of this. You’ve got to turn the other cheek.’ That is an attitude that’s wholly inappropriate and out of place. It is never acceptable.

“We do become the victims of crime in those instances and the organisation treats officers as the victims of crime, which is right. We go through the system in that guise. Hopefully we’ve seen an end to this old-fashioned view that you should just expect a bit of that. No, we shouldn’t have to put up with that simply for doing the job.”