Officers’ use of force is ‘proportionate and lawful’

18 December 2020

Hertfordshire Police Federation chair Geoff Bardell says officers’ use of force is “proportionate and lawful” as new figures show a rise in the use of force in the last year.

Geoff says that in the majority of cases officers have employed force to protect themselves, their colleagues and the public.

He was speaking after a new Home Office report showed there were 492,000 recorded police uses of force in England and Wales in the year to March – a rise of 64,000 on the previous year.

The report states: “Across all reported incidents, the most commonly reported reasons for using force were for protection or to assist in making an arrest.

“Using force as a means of protection most commonly involved the officer protecting themselves or other officers, but also included officers protecting the public or the person involved.”

Geoff said: “Every single day, my colleagues are working in their communities and in the vast majority of cases there’s no need to use force. However, on the occasions when it is necessary to use force, it’s mainly used to protect themselves, their colleagues or the public, and it’s done so in a proportionate and lawful manner.

“But those incidents when they’ve had to protect themselves are on the rise because of the growing numbers of attacks on officers, including the threat of Covid-19 as a weapon.

“It’s unacceptable and we’d urge the courts to support our members with stiffer sentences for offenders.”

His comments were echoed by Ché Donald, the national Federation vice-chair.

He said: “We must read these statistics in relation to the steady increase in assaults on officers. During the period this data covers, almost 20,000 offences were charged under the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act – three-quarters of which were assault by beating. Nine out of 10 of these cases were police officers. 

“The statistics show that UK policing is one of the best trained and most restrained, using their expertise to protect themselves in an increasingly dangerous job. I make no apology for my colleagues doing the best they can to keep the public, themselves and colleagues safe. The vast majority of people appreciate and understand what we do.” 

Taser was used in 32,000 incidents, but crucially was not discharged in 86 per cent of cases. Total Taser use is up 37 per cent on the previous year and most of the increase (88 per cent) was in non-discharge uses. 

A Taser uplift has seen more officers than ever given access to the devices after a successful lobbying campaign by the Federation.

There has also been an increase in the recording of Taser use due to improved and simpler methods of doing so. 

Other findings include: 

• There were 715,000 use of force tactics reported in 492,000 incidents 
• The most common impact factor was the person being under the influence of alcohol (180,000 incidents, 37 per cent)
• The most common outcome was the person being arrested (376,000 incidents, 76 per cent)
• Restraint was the most common tactic type. The majority involved handcuffing which was recorded in 70 per cent of all use of force incidents (350,000 times in 492,000 incidents).