Battered local bobbies miss hundreds of working days - Liberal Democrats

Local police officers have missed an average of over 200 days of work a year after being assaulted by members of the public in according to research by the Liberal Democrats. The key points are:

In three years 654 working days were lost by Leicestershire Police because of police officers being assaulted.

This equates to an average of 218 days a year.

Nationally police staff also lost 5,398 working days to assault in the last five years (including 1,118 days last year).

Commenting, Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Hinckley and Bosworth Michael Mullaney said: "We want more bobbies on the beat, not bobbies being beaten.

"These startling figures show just how difficult a job being a police officer can be.

"Violence is clearly all too common on our streets when so many police working days are being lost as officers recover from assaults.

"Every effort must be made to try to get injured officers back to work as quickly as possible, even if that means lighter duties or paperwork.

"The Liberal Democrats are the only party committed to increasing police numbers. We will put 3,000 more bobbies on the beat."