What’s behind the increased violence against police officers?
Published: 11:10 AM October 3, 2016 Updated: 6:35 PM September 17, 2020
A total of 28 officers have died over the last two years due to violence, with police suicides, car crashes, or gunfire.
In February, 19 out of the 22 officers from West Midlands’ police force died in two days.
The figures are grim and raise questions about how the police are addressing mental health issues.
There are also concerns over how the police are dealing with the death of officers at the hands of criminals.
A report has been released by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) about those two years and it contains many of the same concerns which we highlighted in our story about officers from West Midlands Police killed in the line of duty.
The IPCC was responding after a new report on police use of force submitted to the Commons Police and Crime Committee in January.
The report outlines a number of problems, including the role of PCSOs and a lack of specialist crisis support for officers suffering from severe mental health illness.
It also highlights how officers involved in fatal shootings are “not appropriately compensated” for their deaths.
One officer who died after being shot in the head was given just £30, while another had not been compensated at all, despite being shot multiple times.
And it looks at how police are dealing with the death of firearms officers in a gunfight.
Here’s what you need to know from the report:In the first year of the review, there were 24 fatal police shootings and 28 officers who died due to mental illness.
In 2015/16, a total of 15 officers were killed by their own colleagues.
Since 2013, there have been 14 police suicides.
There has been one car crash in which a police officer was killed and injured.
In 2015/16, 2,500 firearms officers were killed and 3,300 injured that year alone, along with 1,100 officers who were injured by their own colleagues.
There were 16 officers who died due to being struck by their own weapon.
There were