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Following on from a WeCops chat on Wednesday 6^th July on the topic of assaults on emergency workers, Fionnuala Ratcliffe from Transform Justice has written a short blog on discussion:

It was brilliant to have the opportunity to discuss the issue of assaults on police and NHS workers on #wecops recently. The new Transform Justice report questions whether increased criminal sanctions are working to reduce assaults and highlighted some of the unintended consequences for people with mental health conditions, cognitive impairments and/or who are neurodivergent. We were keen to hear people’s thoughts on some of the findings.

Over the course of the hour we discussed three questions:

1. How do assaults on emergency workers arise in the first place? Is it pre-meditated or in the moment?
2. What do you think would help emergency workers who have been assaulted to recover, find resolution and move on?
3. How can we prevent incidents of violence towards emergency workers in the first place?

The discussions were wide-ranging and I can’t do justice to them in 500 words so I’ll pick up on a few points that stood out to me. The chat focussed mainly on assaults on police.

We asked how assaults on emergency workers arise in the first place – are they pre-meditated or are most in the moment? Commenters said lots of assaults aren’t pre-planned: that they usually occur “in the moment”, although some could recall rare examples of planned attacks. Many linked assaults to alcohol or drug misuse issues. We estimate the majority people prosecuted for assaulting emergency workers have a mental health condition, cognitive impairment and/or are neurodivergent. There were over 22,000 prosecutions for assaults on emergency workers or police in 2021. We argue in our report that if most aren’t premeditated, are court sanctions an effective response?

One theme that struck me from the comments was a view that people’s respect in police is declining, and a rise in assaults is an indicator of this. People talked about assaults being symptomatic of “a gradual breakdown in respect, discipline & general order”, of kids growing up with “with no respect for authority”, and that “there’s an increasing section of society more willing to resist arrest”. There are indications that public trust and confidence in the police is waning after high profile news stories about the Met police and others. I’m not sure increased assaults are a side effect of this, but if they are, more punitive responses from the police is unlikely to be the solution. Police legitimacy must be rebuilt in other ways. As one sergeant said: “A bit out there but increasing legitimacy and trust [would prevent assaults]. If you increase these things greater compliance by the public as a whole.”

What would help emergency workers who have been assaulted to recover, find resolution and move on? One thing we heard was support that is tailored to what the victim needs. This could comprise an effective debriefing, time to recover (if needed) before getting back on the job, and access to restorative justice so that the victim can talk about the impact and so the person who committed the assault recognises harm done. Some did feel harsher sentences were the answer, and a more consistent application of these.

We had a real range of responses to the question of how to prevent incidents of violence and abuse against emergency workers happening in the first place. One suggestion that cropped up several times was to reduce “single crewing”, i.e. officers going out to incidents alone. I’d heard of a potential link between assaults and single crewing during our research. Presumably the thinking is that if an officer is on their own, someone may feel more confident to “try it on” and resist arrest, which can end in violence. Or perhaps having two officers means any restraint and arrest can be conducted more quickly, reducing the opportunity for violence to occur. Given how often this suggestion was made it was good to have a Lincolnshire ACC come in citing research into assaults in her force. This found that actually most assaults happened when officers were working double crewed or in custody. So as she said, “double crewing is not the answer.” Others had some different ideas including better training in de-escalation, more staff, and harsher sentences (I’m afraid we don’t agree with harsher sentences as a solution – evidence shows they don't work as a deterrent!).

Thanks for everyone who participated in the chat, we learned a lot from it. If anyone wants to hear more do have a listen to our recent Transform Justice podcast episode on this issue, and if you’d like to discuss further please get in touch!