ESSEX Police Federation is calling on the criminal justice system to use the powers it\u2019s been given by the Protect the Protectors Bill.<\/p>\n
New Ministry of Justice stats show that\u00a0people who are convicted of assaulting emergency services workers are spending less than 12 weeks on average behind bars.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s despite the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018, the so-called Protect the Protectors Bill, allowing sentences of up to a year to be handed down.<\/p>\n
Most convictions are also being dealt with by fines, the figures revealed \u2013 in fact nine out of ten of those charged under the Bill walk free from court.<\/p>\n
Steve Taylor, Chairman of Essex Police Federation, says something is going wrong in the system.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve lobbied for a change in legislation. It was watered down, but we got it. We now have to concentrate on other partners in the criminal justice system, helping us deliver for the benefit of our members,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Hopes were high the Bill would usher in a new era of assault deterring legislation sending out the message that it\u2019s not okay to assault officers and emergency service workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did have high hopes, particularly when in the first instance we lobbied for more legislation,\u201d Steve said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe lobbied for higher terms, and it didn\u2019t happen. We could say \u2018well, I told you so\u2019, but at the end of the day I\u2019m not entirely sure how that helps our members either.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s put our focus instead on the criminal justice system delivering for our members.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s right that we continue to look at it. It\u2019s an important piece of work that deserves our attention and is something we have to continue doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ESSEX Police Federation is calling on the criminal justice system to use the powers it\u2019s been given by the Protect the Protectors Bill. New Ministry of Justice stats show that\u00a0people\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41860,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109953"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109953"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110274,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109953\/revisions\/110274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}