Assaults on police branded 'unacceptable' with reports of daily incidents across Yorkshire

Snapshot findings show there were 822 attacks recorded against police officers and volunteers within just two of Yorkshire’s four forces in the three months to June.

The figures, as an indication of the scale of abuse, suggest some 80 officers are assaulted every day across the breadth of the UK, with more than 29,000 attacks through 2021.

In Cambridgeshire, which has seen assaults more than double, Chief Constable Nick Dean said there has been a sustained rise in offenders “using Covid as a weapon” by spitting on officers.

He said: “The nature of assault can really range from very serious to what we can class as lower-tier assaults such as being pushed or kicked, or what is very prevalent – being spat at.

“None of that, at any level, is acceptable within policing.”

The data findings are based on Freedom of Information requests to all 43 forces in Britain by the PA news agency.

Of 31 forces that responded, some 7,260 assaults against police officers, constables and volunteers were recorded between March 23 and June 23.

Two of Yorkshire’s four forces provided responses, with both South and West Yorkshire Police recording fewer assaults than through earlier peaks of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Throughout 2020, as tensions rose and protests mounted over controversial issues such as the Black Lives Matter campaign, assaults against officers had risen by a third in West Yorkshire – and by 90 per cent in South Yorkshire.

These figures are reflected nationwide, where the statistics showing the number of officers who were assaulted rose 21 per cent in 2020 compared with 2019.

'Substantial increase'

Cambridgeshire Constabulary saw the most substantial increase, with a four-fold increase between 2019 and this year.

Mr Dean said he believes a rise in mental health problems has led to the increase, alongside tensions over protests and the re-opening of the night-time economy.

Forces are tackling the issue through measures such as standardising training times for new officers, he said, providing support for assaulted staff from the day an incident is recorded, and ensuring officers have body-worn cameras.

Mr Dean said: “There’s no prouder moment as a chief than to welcome new officers into the organisation.

“We celebrate that with the officers and their families and it’s a very proud moment. But when you see sometime later that they have encountered a violent incident as a result, then it does have an impact.

“It has an impact on the officer, it has an impact on their family and friends, and I have to say it has an impact upon the organisation. From the feedback from the community, it has an impact on them too.”

Emergency services

There have been warning calls across the region’s emergency services, from firefighters to paramedics.

Earlier this month, it emerged firefighters in Leeds have been kicked, spat at and stoned while responding to emergency call-outs, and claims that a weapon was used in one instance.

Some 33 assaults were recorded across West Yorkshire since April, with the region’s chief fire officer warning “even one attack is one too many”.

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