North Wales - Rise in number of North Wales Police officers assaulted on duty as hundreds report attacks

The Police and Crime Commissioner has vowed to take action over 'shocking' figures to 'nip the problem in the bud'

Shocking new figures have revealed the number of attacks on police officers in North Wales every week.

The statistics, uncovered by a Freedom of Information request by the Daily Post, show 303 PCs and PSCOs were assaulted while on duty between April 2015 and March 2016 - an average of six a week.

This is a sharp increase on the 83 assaulted in 2014/15 and 64 in 2013/14, sparking concern from some quarters.

Now the Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones has vowed to take action and conduct a survey of those affected.

He said the rise could be partially attributed to improved reporting, but he’s determined to ‘nip the problem in the bud.’

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“I was shocked to hear about the increase in assaults on police officers and I am making it a priority to find out what is behind this worrying trend,” said Mr Jones.

“We really need to nip this issue in the bud. If people think they can get away with it, assaults on police will continue. We need to support our officers to enforce the law as robustly as it needs to be done.

Arfon Jones, North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner
Arfon Jones, North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner
“I’ll be meeting with the Police Federation with a view to conducting a survey of all the 303 officers who were assaulted, to gain more detailed information so we can properly establish the causes and address this problem head on.”

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Arfon Jones added: “A great deal more work needs to be done to understand exactly what’s happening but my initial findings point to a number of factors being at play.

“Amongst other things, I’ve been told the increase is probably down to better reporting of assaults and also the fact that the sentences handed out for assaults on the police are not seen as a deterrent to people.

“Like any employer, we’re duty bound to protect our staff and I would expect our criminal justice partners to play their part in that and to hand out deterrent sentences.”
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/rise-number-north-wales-police-12348758