125 police officers assaulted every day, as Yvette Cooper calls record figures 'a stain on our society'
10 September 2024, 05:25 | Updated: 10 September 2024, 06:47
The number of police officers being assaulted every day has soared to record levels, with the Home Secretary denouncing the figures as a "stain on our society".
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Some 45,907 assaults on police officers were recorded in the UK in the year leading up to March 2024.
That equates to an average of 125 officers attacked per day.
A total of 11,479 of the assaults resulted in injury, which is an increase of 75% on 2018's levels.
The figures do not include the dozens of attacks on police that took place during the late July and August riots that followed the Southport killings, or the Notting Hill Carnival last month.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper vowed to tackle the problem and claimed her Conservative predecessors had not done enough.
Writing in the Sun, Ms Cooper said: "We cannot turn this round overnight but we can end the apathy which the previous government had towards this issue.
“It is a stain on our society and those responsible must pay the price.”
She added: “That starts with tackling the unacceptable culture of abuse towards our officers, and restoring respect for the rule of law.
“We need to get thousands more officers back on the beat, and restore the trust that should exist between the police and local communities."
She said that "of course that also means holding our police to the highest standards" but that when officers "are out there on our streets, we will back them to protect the public, and themselves."
Ms Cooper added: "For putting their lives on the line for us every day, that is the least they deserve."
Last year, a sergeant with Sussex Police Sergeant told LBC how he suffered a sunken eye-socket and sight problems after being assaulted while doing his job.
Alec Barrett was knocked to the ground and repeatedly punched in the face in the centre of Brighton in April 2023 – when trying to make an arrest for shoplifting and violence.
Watch Again: Nick Ferrari is joined by Crime and Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson | 09/09/24
The 38-year-old suffered sustained concussion, a broken eye socket, bleeding in his sinuses, a broken nose and damage to his cheek.
Mr Barrett is now living with life-changing injuries, and he told LBC the assault had a profound impact on his family: “A horrendously swollen face and black eye - they were quite upset and scared of me and it took quite a lot of time to rebuild the confidence there that I was still the same person - I was still their dad.
"I am permanently disfigured. I’m short of having plates put in which come with their own risk. I will never look the same. I will never look how I once was."
