179 days lost at Nottinghamshire Police due to assaults on officers

2.37.50pm GMT Tue 24th Mar 2009

Nottinghamshire Police lost more than 179 working days in a single year because of assaults on their officers, new figures reveal.

Ashfield Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesman, Jason Zadrozny said: "Violence against police officers is totally unacceptable. Police officers are clearly not being provided with the protection that they need to do their jobs.

"Current measures are clearly not effective enough as 179 days are lost because of attacks on Nottinghamshire Police officers.

"There must be zero tolerance on attacks, abuse and threats of violence and this means prosecuting the offenders and putting them through the courts.

"The Government must do more to ensure the safety of police officers in what is already a very challenging working environment."

"In our area people do not see bobbies on the beat enough now, the Government should be doing all they can to ensure that every second of police time is used properly and not wasted because their safety hasn't been made paramount."

Figures show that 34 forces lost a total of 15,338 officer working days due to assaults in the latest year for which figures are available.

Most badly hit was the Metropolitan Police, with 5,848 days lost, followed by West Midlands (1,166), Northumbria (1,075) and Greater Manchester (832). The figures were released in a written parliamentary answer from Policing Minister, Nottinghamshire MP Vernon Coaker.