Five police officers assaulted in the Black Country in the past week
Five police officers have been violently attacked in the Black Country over the last week, with three punched in the face and one in the throat, while another was pushed into a glass window.
It comes as Government statistics show that West Midlands Police was the second most assaulted force in the country in the year ending March 2022.
One officer was punched in the face last night after police were driving down Cannock Road in Wolverhampton and spotted a man walking in the middle of the road.
When they stopped, one of the officers was punched in the face. A 29-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer and was brought into police custody where he remained this morning.
Only two days earlier, two men were arrested on Friday night after three police officers were assaulted while working in Wolverhampton city centre.
Two officers were punched in the face while the third was injured when pushed into a glass window on Princess Street.
And last Wednesday a female police officer was punched in the throat by a 15-year-old schoolboy while she was trying to arrest a domestic abuse suspect.
In another incident, a 54-year-old man was arrested in Dudley town centre last night after throwing a brick at a police car on Birdcage Walk, near the town's bus station.
This spate of horrific crime against the force comes as the chair of the West Midlands Police Federation, Sergeant Richard Cooke, told the Express & Star that all police officers should be given Tasers to lessen the risk of them being assaulted.
Sergeant Cooke said: "Unfortunately, this is what we are seeing across the force, police officers are being targeted increasingly by violent criminals and it does have an effect.
"It's not just a physical effect, often the mental effect is a far worse trauma. It takes a long time to get over.
"Wearing a Taser makes an officer nine times less likely to be assaulted. We think it's a no-brainer."
Superintendent Martin Hurcomb, the West Midlands Police force lead for Taser, said: "There’s nothing more important to us than the safety of our people and the safety of the public.
"Taser is a really useful tool amongst a variety of options that help officers to stay safe and to keep people safe.
"The use of Taser is regulated by strict standards and is issued to our officers following a rigorous training programme.
"Officers have a choice whether they want to be trained to carry Taser and we currently have more than 1,000 who are authorised to do so, with plans for more to be fully equipped in the near future.
"Taser is an important tactical option for officers, but is not the answer to all violent or threatening situations.
"It is important to stress that the use of Taser in most cases does not include firing. For the vast majority of incidents the threat is mitigated by the sheer presence of the device."
In the year ending March 2022 there were just over 41,000 assaults on police officers in England and Wales.
Of these assaults, 2330 were committed against officers from West Midlands Police, making it the second most assaulted force in the country after the Metropolitan Police.
Government statistics show that 907 of these assaults caused an injury to a constable, with the other 1,423 not causing an injury.
