Assaults On Officers Are ‘Disgusting’

THE high rate of assaults on Essex Police officers shows there is “something really wrong”, and officers needed proper support, Essex Police Federation has said.

Essex Police Federation Chair Laura Heggie said: “Our officers are still being assaulted. At a recent meeting I was at with chief officers, I saw figures showing that over the past 10 months, 10% of recorded assaults resulted in officers requiring medical attention. There’s something going really wrong and we need to try and find out what.

“Also 14% of officers, which equated to 63, were spat at. It’s disgusting. There are things that can be passed on when people are spat at. It’s a deliberate attack as much as punching somebody and shouldn’t be tolerated.”

Last year – between April 2020 and March 2021 – there were 1,411 recorded assaults against Essex Police officers, which was a 20% rise from the previous year. Laura fears that this year’s figures will be even higher.

But Laura said that the introduction of Op Hampshire to Essex Police had been really positive. She said: “Now supervisors are far more aware of what we should be putting in place to support officers who have been assaulted. We need to look after their welfare, and another important part is debriefing the incident. We can all learn from every incident that we attend and if just taking that extra bit of time could prevent an officer being assaulted its worth it.”