Officers must be supported

From the Telegraph & Argus, first published Wednesday 29th Jun 2005.

The average of two assaults every day on West Yorkshire police officers might be half of last year's figure but is still far too many. As West Yorkshire Police Federation chairman Tom McGhie says, an assault on a police officer used to be taken so seriously that it was regarded as an assault on every member of the public, and the culprit would be jailed.

Now, not only do people not respect the police as they used to and are more willing to lash out at them, but the sentences handed down by the courts no longer reflect what used to be the sense of public outrage provoked by attacks on those whose job is to maintain law and order on behalf of all of us.

Mr McGhie wants a return to those days, with tougher sentencing to demonstrate that society will not tolerate these attacks on authority figures. He is right. Policing is a hard enough job without having to do it in constant fear of being beaten up.

However, while society needs to do more to re-establish authority, the police themselves have to work on improving their own image. It has been tarnished by the occasional bad penny in the ranks, by incidents of racism, by a growing public perception that the police don't give value for money.

But despite any shortcomings, they are the people employed by the public to hold the line and protect our lives and our property. As a society we need to support them in their work.

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