Officer attacks: Reminder of dangerous jobs our members do

TWO Essex Police officers who were stabbed during an incident in Chelmsford earlier this month are making a good recovery and are likely to return to full duties in time.

The pair were injured on Friday 1 December. The officers are being taken care of well by the force, Essex Police Federation has said, who praised the Chief Constable, commanders and everyone else in Chelmsford who are taking steps to help the officers recover.

Steve Taylor, Federation Chairman, said: “This is another reminder of the difficult and dangerous jobs our members do to protect the public. We are doing all we possible can to protect them, and to prevent further attacks.

“What can we do to better look after our officers? Well we acknowledge that there are fewer of us, doing more with less. But are our policies and procedures right, looking after those officers who are assaulted? We’ve had those revamped under the direction of BJ Harrington, the Deputy Chief Constable, this year, so we’re starting to see an improvement in how officers are dealt with. Officers assaulted at work are not just officers, they’re victims, and they need to be dealt with appropriately.

“And the work that is going on at national level, under the label of ‘Protect the Protectors’, is progressing well, along with the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Bill, which we are all campaigning to get made into law.”

But more needs to be done outside the police to ensure deterrents are strong enough, Steve added. He referred to a case recently when an offender who bit a police officer was given a 12-week suspended sentence, which he said was “unacceptable”.

e added: “It’s ludicrous. The risk and the danger involved to that officer who was bitten just for doing his job is not adequately reflected in a 12 week sentence. That’s not looking after the protectors, and if that’s what our colleagues can expect from the judiciary, they have every right to be disappointed, as we were, with a result like that.”