NCJ Number
157995
Date Published
1994
Length
65 pages
Annotation
In late 1992, Great Britain's Home Office established a working group to explore protective requirements of police officers; information was collected about 226 incidents which occurred during 1992 in the Bedfordshire, Greater Manchester, and South Yorkshire police force regions and involved an assault on one or more police officers.
Abstract
Findings showed that assaults on police officers occurred in several different situations. In diminishing order of number of incidents, police officers were assaulted when dealing with a public disorder, dealing with disputes, carrying out traffic stops, carrying out foot stops, attempting to detain criminals, taking part in organized operations, and dealing with prisoners and other members of the public on police premises. Further analysis to examine the stage of an encounter when the assault took place found that almost one-third of all assaults occurred before police officers had the opportunity to speak with assailants, one-fifth of all assaults occurred when police officers tried to calm or pacify individuals, one-quarter of all injuries were sustained when police officers attempted to restrain suspects at the time of arrest, and one-quarter of all injuries were sustained after an assailant had been initially detained. Seventeen percent of police officers suffered serious injuries. Weapons were primarily used in direct, immediate attacks on police officers, often to escape situations where police officers had disturbed offenders involved in committing a crime. In 83 percent of the assaults, police officers felt that additional equipment would not have helped them prevent or deal with an assault. Various measures are suggested to reduce the frequency of assaults on police officers, and an improved assault management information system is recommended to identify trianing needs and design preventive strategies. Supplemental information on assault incidents is appended. 19 references, 13 tables, and 7 figures