Two hundred Dorset police offcers assaulted on duty last year

Two hundred Dorset police offcers assaulted on duty last year Two hundred Dorset police offcers assaulted on duty last year

TWO hundred police officers were assaulted while on duty in Dorset last year, figures have revealed.

The assaults range from inflicting GBH with intent to actual bodily harm.

The chairman of Dorset Police Federation – the ‘union’ for police officers – says the number of attacks highlights the “dangers” officers routinely face on the frontline.

In the latest incident a police officer suffered facial injuries while dealing with an altercation at Fairfield in the Bargates area of Christchurch in February.

A Dorset Police spokesman said the injured officer had been discharged after receiving hospital treatment.

Two teenagers were arrested and released on bail pending further inquiries.

The attack comes just weeks after PC Adam Carr suffered a serious head injury outside the Nationwide building society in Boscombe.

Attacks on cops have dropped in recent years from 306 in 2010, 302 in 2011 to 207 last year.

Dorset Federation chairman Clive Chamberlain said the drop in recorded assaults is partly due to a reduction in officer numbers in recent years.

He added: “It is a dangerous job and I think the statistics may have been coming down since Taser and pepper stray has been more widely available.

“That definitely makes some people think about whether they are going to have a go at an officer because they know there’s a raft of protection available to them.”

He said more “dynamic” self-defence training has helped officers deal with situations.

“Inevitably it is a dangerous job. People do get assaulted and badly hurt.

“It is good news that the numbers of officers assaulted have reduced but it concerns me that with less police officers to deal with the same number of incidents, and with further to travel to incidents, that we will potentially see more in the future.”

The number of people arrested in the county has fallen over the last three years by almost 4,000 from 18,303 in 2010 to 14,582 in 2012.

Adding up the stats

ASSAULTS ON OFFICERS:

  • 2010.................... 306
  • 2011.................... 302
  • 2012.................... 207
     

NUMBER OF ARRESTS IN DORSET:

  • 2010............... 18,303
  • 2011............... 16,576
  • 2012............... 14,58

​A man and a woman have been charged in connection with the assault on PC Adam Carr.

Comments(21)

simcal says...
9:46am Wed 20 Mar 13

Context would not go amiss here. How many were common assaults? How many did they assault?

retry69 says...
10:04am Wed 20 Mar 13

Cue anti-police brigade

radical says...
10:41am Wed 20 Mar 13

An assault can be anything from poking someone in the ribs to actually striking them hard, what's needed here is a breakdown of how many of these were serious assaults.

Tango Charlie says...
10:54am Wed 20 Mar 13

Also missing; how many police on the streets able to deal with a situation due to cuts in funding. Is there a link to the fall of assaults and arrests?

High Treason says...
11:33am Wed 20 Mar 13

Of course because the yobs do not get a sensible punishment any more. Bring back the birch, it would work wonders.

freedom for pokesdown says...
12:07pm Wed 20 Mar 13

Since I learnt that bicycle theft is classified as a violent crime in this country, I've taken police statistics with a pinch of salt.

I wonder if 'assault' includes verbal assault?

BIGTONE says...
12:45pm Wed 20 Mar 13

Another pick a number stat. Waste of time.

paul.p says...
2:49pm Wed 20 Mar 13

All Part of the Job or do you join the Army and wonder why you're getting shot at?

westhowewarriors says...
7:11pm Wed 20 Mar 13

paul.p wrote:
All Part of the Job or do you join the Army and wonder why you're getting shot at?
very true well said !

westhowewarriors says...
7:12pm Wed 20 Mar 13

ASSAULTS ON OFFICERS:
•2010.............
....... 306
•2011.............
....... 302
•2012.............
....... 207


NUMBER OF ARRESTS IN DORSET:
•2010.............
.. 18,303
•2011.............
.. 16,576
•2012.............
.. 14,58

CARE !

Controversial But True says...
7:26pm Wed 20 Mar 13

A decline in arrests and assaults!

Nothing to do with the sharp decline in real police officers then?

This government needs to go, along with those ridiculous PCSO's!!

Clunge says...
8:48pm Wed 20 Mar 13

paul.p wrote:
All Part of the Job or do you join the Army and wonder why you're getting shot at?
All part of the job? Rubbish. An employer has a duty of care regardless of the job, and Police Officers are not complaining about it, the stats are merely being pointed out.

37 Soldiers died in incidents involving snatch Landrovers (the mobile coffin) in Iraq and Afghanistan, a vehicle completely inadequate for the task, until the government were shamed into spending a few quid to buy the vehicles they should have used all along.

Should the troops just accepted it as part of the job? Or demanded changes?

Should firemen just accept burning to death in buildings, as "part of the job" or should they have rightly amended procedures to reduce the dangers they face?

I would suggest the type of person who assaults a Police Officer is of the same type as those that assault NHS staff, teachers and other people just doing a job. The punishment should therefore be harsh, just as it should be for Police officers who are proven to have broken the law.

jill M says...
9:26pm Wed 20 Mar 13

Controversial But True wrote:
A decline in arrests and assaults!

Nothing to do with the sharp decline in real police officers then?

This government needs to go, along with those ridiculous PCSO's!!
The PCSOs are doing a valuable job, they are the eyes and ears of the community, they do many of the smaller jobs, freeing up the PCs to get on with other jobs. A lot of PCSOs go on to be PCs, as they ve had good training to start with. I m not saying that they should replace PCs for one minute, but please, don t keep knocking them, they re doing a difficult enough job as it is. We need more PCs and yes, more PCSOs on the street.

O'Reilly says...
10:52pm Wed 20 Mar 13

I can picture Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro in Scorcese's film 'Mean Streets'.

O'Reilly says...
10:55pm Wed 20 Mar 13

.........or maybe Harvey as the 'Bad Lieutenant'......he'
d have cleaned up Boscombe.

s-pb2 says...
11:06pm Wed 20 Mar 13

retry69 wrote:
Cue anti-police brigade
Ah yes, the anti-police brigade! An article about the police would not be an article about the police without their predictable and boring whinging, whining and grizzling

renea says...
7:04am Thu 21 Mar 13

Clunge wrote:
paul.p wrote:
All Part of the Job or do you join the Army and wonder why you're getting shot at?
All part of the job? Rubbish. An employer has a duty of care regardless of the job, and Police Officers are not complaining about it, the stats are merely being pointed out.

37 Soldiers died in incidents involving snatch Landrovers (the mobile coffin) in Iraq and Afghanistan, a vehicle completely inadequate for the task, until the government were shamed into spending a few quid to buy the vehicles they should have used all along.

Should the troops just accepted it as part of the job? Or demanded changes?

Should firemen just accept burning to death in buildings, as "part of the job" or should they have rightly amended procedures to reduce the dangers they face?

I would suggest the type of person who assaults a Police Officer is of the same type as those that assault NHS staff, teachers and other people just doing a job. The punishment should therefore be harsh, just as it should be for Police officers who are proven to have broken the law.
well said

cycopath says...
7:27am Thu 21 Mar 13

paul.p wrote:
All Part of the Job or do you join the Army and wonder why you're getting shot at?
What does the p stand for paul?

westhowewarriors says...
12:15pm Thu 21 Mar 13

jill M wrote:
Controversial But True wrote: A decline in arrests and assaults! Nothing to do with the sharp decline in real police officers then? This government needs to go, along with those ridiculous PCSO's!!
The PCSOs are doing a valuable job, they are the eyes and ears of the community, they do many of the smaller jobs, freeing up the PCs to get on with other jobs. A lot of PCSOs go on to be PCs, as they ve had good training to start with. I m not saying that they should replace PCs for one minute, but please, don t keep knocking them, they re doing a difficult enough job as it is. We need more PCs and yes, more PCSOs on the street.
what a debate u people are sad f.t police let them get on with it

Azphreal says...
1:26pm Thu 21 Mar 13

I agree the police have a hard job (when they actually do it) but i wonder how many of these 'assaults' never actually happened. There is a growing movement on social media where people actually film the police during arrests and many times you see police using an 'assault' as the excuse to taser or use spray against people.

Azphreal says...
5:04pm Thu 21 Mar 13

Not forgetting that saying 'during the arrest he spat at me' and 'during the arrest he assaulted me' seem to have totally different meanings.

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