#ProtectTheProtectors: Enhanced support for assaulted officers under Operation Hampshire

30 November 2020

Essex Police Federation is enhancing the support and protection provided to police officers who have been assaulted at work, under the Operation Hampshire umbrella.

Operation Hampshire sets out a seven point plan, leading with the principle that officer assaults should be investigated with the same level of care, compassion and commitment as an assault on any member of the public.

Laura Heggie, Federation Chair, said: “At Essex Police we are looking to completely adopt this. I sit on two working groups now which completely focuses on officer assaults, along with the whole investigation and the follow-up afterwards. As well as adopting the Op Hampshire seven-point plan and we are looking at it to see if there is anything extra that we could add.

“We’ve put some brilliant processes in place for trying to manage the victim care which has been missing previously. Quite often we don’t think of the police officer that’s been assaulted as a victim but they are. Essex is doing a huge amount work at the moment in relation to this. They’re also putting in place a debriefing process so that officers that are involved in the use of force, which inevitably sometimes leads to an assault as well because they go hands on, to see what could be done differently, but also to try to enhance the learning for officers to potentially stop them becoming repeat victims – so that they’re more aware of their actions and their presence.”

More still needs to be done in the courts to penalise police assaults, Laura said. She added: “There’s no point in the force doing all the initial work of getting a great statement, looking after the victim, documenting it all and getting it through to a charge if it’s then falling down once it goes to court. So I know that there’s also a lot of work going on there with Criminal Justice liaison to make sure that it goes through the court system appropriately and sentences properly reflect the offences.”

The seven-point plan also recognises that assaulted officers should never be in charge of the investigation, and that assault victims recover better and more quickly with the right welfare and supervision.