Harrowing stories of police bravery in the face of extreme danger will be told in the second episode of a new documentary series on Bank Holiday Monday (6 May 2019).

Police Code Zero: Officer Under Attack has been produced in collaboration with the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) and uses bodycam footage and first-hand accounts reveal how far suspects will go to try to escape justice.

The latest episode of the four-part series will be broadcast on Channel 5 at 10pm on Monday 6 May and will include commentary from PFEW National Chair John Apter. It includes footage of:

• An officer who was thrown over a car bonnet by a suspect who drove at him in Anglesey. His colleague tells the camera: “I saw Mark laying on the concrete. I remember thinking he’ll get up, but of course he didn’t get up.”
• An incident in Merseyside when a brave officer tackles a suspect in a vehicle who “floors it”, with neither wearing seatbelts. The officer pulls at the handbrake and says, “Mate you’re going to kill us” and the suspect replies “Yeah I know, yeah.”

Nearly a million viewers tuned in to watch the first episode last week, and saw an officer being violently assaulted during a routine traffic patrol and a suspect biting a police dog.

Results of PFEW’s latest Demand, Capacity and Welfare Survey shows that 66% of officers were subjected to an unarmed, violent attack last year and 31% experience these attacks on a monthly basis. The proportion of respondents who required medical attention as a consequence of work-related violence has increased by over 8%, since 2016 from 20.2% to 21.9%.

John Apter, National Chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales said: “The seriousness and frequency of assaults on police officers is vastly under-reported. We campaigned for a change in legislation for tougher sentencing for those who assault emergency service workers. This came into effect last November but there is far more to be done. We need legislators, the Crown Prosecution Service and magistrates to take the toughest stance on those who assault police officers.”

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