Kerb-trip PC also suing own force after car crash

PC Kelly Jones is taking action against Norfolk Police in relation to a patrol car crash, the Daily Mail reported.

She is understood to have been a passenger in a patrol car which skidded off the road and ended up on its side during a high-speed pursuit near the village of Garboldisham on January 30, 2012.

The officer is also pursuing a claim against Steve Jones, 50, the owner of Nuns’ Bridges Filling Station in Thetford, Norfolk, for failing to ensure she was “reasonably safe” when she attended a suspected break-in last August, seven months after the crash.

Norfolk Police said it could not comment on individual cases.

A spokesman for Pattinson Brewer, the law firm representing her, confirmed she had suffered a knee injury in a road traffic collision while on duty and that “liability for that incident was admitted by Norfolk Police Constabulary”.

Figures from the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW), which represents rank and file officers, show that almost £70m has been paid in the last four years to injured officers.

Norfolk’s Deputy Chief Constable, Simon Bailey said in a statement: “The vast majority of officers are proud of what they do and would never consider making a compensation claim against a victim of crime.

“It is important to us that this issue does not detract from the overwhelming and on-going hard work and commitment to public protection by police officers both here in Norfolk and elsewhere across the country.”

The Police Federation is funding PC Jones’s legal costs in the case against Mr Jones.

The claim alleges he was at fault for failing to ensure the police officer was “reasonably safe”, making no attempt to light the area or warn her about the step when she went to the incident last August.

A Police Federation spokesman said: “The role of a police officer is a challenging one which carries significant risk of injury.

“While we accept this risk is part of the job, it is only right that officers should have the same protection as any other employee or member of the public who may suffer injury.

“Like any other employee, they should have the opportunity to recoup any loss of earnings, and the current system represents the only way of doing so.”