NEW figures showing that 756 Essex Police Officers were assaulted last year offers an \u2018accurate picture\u2019 of what they are put through on duty, says Essex Police Federation.<\/p>\n
The continuing #ProtectTheProtectors campaign, aimed at highlighting the violence officers often face, has meant the amount of assaults are now being more accurately recorded, Federation Chairman Steve Taylor revealed.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI am sadly not surprised by the figures,\u201d he said. \u201cFor a while I\u2019ve been saying that more officers are assaulted than have been officially recorded so this is an unintended consequence of the work we\u2019ve been doing around Protect the Protectors, it\u2019s better record keeping.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve says deterrents to assaulting police officers need to be in place and has called on the Criminal Justice System to send out \u2018stronger signals\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne assault on a colleague is too many and in Essex we firmly hold the line that an assault on a constable is an assault on society itself, it\u2019s not right that anyone should think it acceptable to assault an officer in any shape or form.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why we need support from the law makers. We\u2019ve been lobbying hard through Protect the Protectors to increase sentences available for the courts to hand down.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s disappointing that the proposed legislation has been watered down but getting anything through with Brexit happening is a step in the right direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe deterrent argument needs strengthening \u2013 harsher sanctions need to be made available, that\u2019s what we continue to push for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taser, spit guards and body worn cameras are also key bits of kit in the fight against a society that is paying less respect to the police and authority, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need investment, they need funding and it\u2019s a really tricky area for the force because there are very limited resources in that area,\u201d Steve said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we are starting to see more body worn video and the force is rolling out some top-notch equipment, some of the best out there. With Taser, we are training more people, we are getting the new models in and we are moving in the right direction, although we are not advanced as we\u2019d like us to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d love to be in the position of some of the forces and be able to say that every frontline officer that wishes to deploy with a Taser, there is one available for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s a laudable aim for us to work towards but there\u2019s a lot of work still to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW figures showing that 756 Essex Police Officers were assaulted last year offers an \u2018accurate picture\u2019 of what they are put through on duty, says Essex Police Federation. The continuing\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3241,"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\/4675"}],"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=4675"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4689,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4675\/revisions\/4689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}