Tough sentences are needed when officers are assaulted, says Fed chair

27 June 2022

Hertfordshire Police Federation chair Luke Mitchell says one assault on an emergency worker is one too many.

Luke called for tough sentences to be handed down by the courts to send out the message that such attacks are unacceptable.

He said: “Our members show incredible bravery and professionalism every day when faced with unacceptable violence and abuse – just for doing their jobs.

“One assault on a police officer or frontline worker is one too many. They’re just normal people who, at the end of the day, have families and loved ones to go home to.

“We need to get the message across that it’s unacceptable to attack police officers and emergency services workers, and we need the courts to impose tough sentences to do that.”

Luke’s comments follow the publication of a report by the charity Transform Justice ‘Protect the protectors? Do criminal sanctions reduce violence against police and NHS staff?’.

The report states it takes a closer, evidence-based look at increased penalties for assaults against emergency workers and demonstrates the ineffectiveness of this approach on any level.

Steve Hartshorn, chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales, took part in a panel discussion to coincide with the report’s launch which asked: ‘Will harsher sanctions reduce assaults on police and NHS workers?’

Asked of his personal experience of officers being assaulted when on duty, Steve said: “I have been assaulted countless times and, to go back to when I first started as a new officer in 1995, there was an ethos then that it was part of the job.

“It was in the early 2000s I think and, there was a court case where a judge basically reaffirmed that it was part the job to get assaulted but it never felt right because everyone has a right to go to work and to be treated properly. We accept that at times policing can be a contact sport, certainly if you are a frontline officer dealing with the public.

“It’s the minority of the public that cause these assaults on officers and it does leave lasting effects on police officers.”