It is important to record police use of force correctly, says Fed

NEW figures revealing the number of occasions officers use force to protect themselves or their colleagues have been released – ‘important information’ Essex Police Federation has said.

In the past year there were 214,000 occasions when officers used force to protect themselves, and there were another 170,000 times when they had to use force to protect a colleague.

And the information it provides is vital in informing decision makers about the environments officers work in and the day to day kit they should have to protect themselves.

“I’m not sure what the classification of force is but the numbers do strike me as being a little light perhaps,” Federation Chairman Steve Taylor said.

“It is a new regime of recording force and we’d like to think it’s being done properly and in a more uniformed matter because it speaks directly to the number of officers assaulted, for example.

“The use of force questionnaire can extend to about 50 questions, so it’s got a bureaucratic element to it, but it is a step forward, it’s really important information in regard to the use of force.

“Colleagues must complete the use of force form when force is used because it touches so many different areas, not only the statistics around the environment you find yourself working in, but it covers the types of technique and device that you’re using, it can inform cases on new devices such as spit guards and increased taser coverage,” he added.

“It’s a real broad piece that the use of force information feeds into. That’s without even looking at the external factors such as legitimate use of force, legitimacy around doing stop and search.”