Over 16,000 incidents of force by WYP

Friday, 14 December 2018 07:00

West Yorkshire Police has published statistics to show how many times force has been used by officers during their duties.

This is the first time that all police forces across the UK have released the 12 months data.

During the 12-month period of 1 April 2017 – 31 March 2018 there was a total of 16,165 incidents of force being used. In some instances, more than one type of force was used in order for the incident to be resolved.

Taser was used on 446 occasions though only used in a firing capacity on 64 occasions.

Spit and bite guards were used on 132 occasions, and firearms were aimed at suspects 148 times.

Assistant Chief Constable Tim Kingsman of West Yorkshire Police said: "Keeping people safe across West Yorkshire sometimes means police officers intervene in dangerous or complex situations.

"On some occasions police officers have to use force to protect the public and protect themselves from harm. Force can mean for example, a form of restraint, handcuffing or use of PAVA spray.

"Our officers are trained to use the minimum level of force required to resolve an incident quickly and efficiently. Our officers are accountable for ensuring that use of force is lawful and is applied only when absolutely necessary.

"We deal with thousands of calls for service at West Yorkshire Police every day – it is inevitable given the nature of the job that we do to keep our communities safe that some of those calls will require the use of force.

"It is pleasing to note that the vast majority of instances never require force to be used and tactical communication and compliant handcuffing are usually enough.

"Rarely did officers have to use additional tactics or resources. Often, the visible presence of such a tactic was sufficient and not used.

"Of those injured when force by police has been used, over 99% only suffered minor injuries.

"Police officers put themselves in harm’s way 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. This data set also shows that during the same time staff were physically injured 856 times."

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