Attacks on West Midlands Police at 1,400 in year
Police officers in the West Midlands were assaulted more than 1,400 times over the last year.
According to a Freedom of Information request, the range of assaults covers malicious wounding, threats to kill and threatening an officer with an offensive weapon on school premises.
The catalogue of assaults took place between April 1, 2014 and March 31, 2015.
This most common item was assaulting a constable, which accounted for 491 of the final figure, followed by occasioning ABH, which took place 368 times.
The third highest total was for racially or religiously motivated intentional harassment, with 127 cases.
Racially or religiously motivated assaults in general accounted for 178 of the total amount.
West Midlands Police is made up of 7,249 police officers, supported by 3,086 staff, around 400 special constables and 690 police community support officers.
Between January and October 2013, 387 police officers and staff were injured as a result of an assault, resulting in 375 days absence.
Last year, Osman Mahmood, who was just four days into his training as a police and community support officer, stepped in to help one of West Midlands Police's leading officers after he was racially abused and pinned to the floor as he made an off-duty arrest. A police officer was also attacked with a sledgehammer during a botched raid on a cash machine in Sandwell.
Chairman of West Midlands Police Federation, Pc Ian Edwards said: "It is accepted that the nature of policing carries some risk.
"West Midlands Police officers are trained in personal safety techniques and are suitably equipped to ensure that they are able to discharge their duties as safely as possible in protecting our communities."
In January, new figures revealed the level of verbal and physical abuse endured by frontline ambulance personnel.
They showed that between June 1, 2014 and December 31, 2014 last year, 46 frontline staff were physically assaulted in Birmingham, 31 in the Black Country, 14 in Coventry and Warwickshire, 15 in Staffordshire and 13 in West Mercia.
The figures also reveal, for the same period, that 48 frontline staff were verbally abused in Birmingham.
Another 61 suffered the same abuse in the Black Country, 21 in Coventry and Warwickshire, 40 in Staffordshire and 39 in West Mercia.
