Federation tell MPs: “We must protect the protectors”

ESSEX Police Federation met with MP Rebecca Harris at Parliament this month to highlight the escalating problem of officer assaults in the country and county.

Steve Taylor, Chairman Elect of Essex Police Federation, urged the Member for Castle Point to support the national campaign to ensure tougher sentences for those who attack police officers.

And to protect the protectors.

He said: “The aim of the meeting was to put an Essex perspective onto the national campaign on assaults on officers and engaging with the criminal justice system to get an improvement in the sentences that suspects receive. Currently sentences are not appropriate. They are sliding down the scale.”

An adjournment debate earlier this month, led by Labour’s Holly Lynch, saw MPs discuss the issue on how officers can be better protected from attacks.

She said: “It is totally unacceptable that public servants, working in their communities to protect people and help the vulnerable, are subject to assaults as they go about their jobs.”

Steve described a recent case in which an offer was shot at. A suspect was arrested and charged with attempted murder, but the CPS accepted a plea bargain.

He said: “They didn’t even consult with her. She was the victim and it was almost taken for granted that she was an officer and therefore not an individual, not a colleague whose family and herself have had to endure sleepless nights, and the trauma that goes with someone shooting at you. It is horrendous.

“We call on the Chief Constable and on the Police and Crime Commissioner to provide us and equip us adequately to deal with a reasonable expectation of harm that we face. So we can look to our own equipment, we can look to spit hoods, we can look to body worn video cameras, and Taser.”

Steve also raised these issues with the Conservative MP. He said: “I felt that I was pushing on an open door. She was, on the whole, supportive for all those measures.”

The Federation will be meeting with other Essex MPs over the coming weeks and months, Steve said, to raise awareness of issues facing officers and further the organisation’s aims.