‘Attacks on police should not be part of the job’

Nine police officers are assaulted every day in Northern Ireland, according to the Police Federation of Northern Ireland (PFNI).

The organisation said assaults on officers can have knock-on effects for victims of crime and the community.

It comes after 64 police officers were injured over a number of nights of violence across Northern Ireland, as petrol bombs, bricks and fireworks were thrown at police.

PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said officers being attacked “should never be thought of as part of anyone’s normal day at work”.

Chairman of the PFNI, Liam Kelly, said the organisation wants “decisive and tough sentences” from the legislators and courts for those who assault officers.

He said nine officers a day being assaulted was a “conservative” figure as more officers who suffer minor assaults do not report them.

“These figures are shocking and appalling. It’s high time we saw a much tougher approach with assailants who strike, kick, punch and spit at our colleagues,” said Mr Kelly.

Launching the campaign “Let Them Protect”, Mr Kelly said: “We want the public to realise the full extent of what our officers – themselves fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters – have to suffer. It’s not right they should end up in hospital with injuries they sustain while protecting the community.”

Insp Róisín Brown was attacked in the summer of 2024 while on duty supervising an event in Belfast.

She sustained an injury to her left cheekbone, her teeth and developed post-concussion syndrome, which gave her temporary memory loss.

She was taken off work for three weeks as a result.

Insp Brown said she was attacked when she intervened to deal with a drunk male at a concert who had been thrown out for becoming violent.

“I could see him spitting, punching, trying to fight with people,” Insp Brown said.

“I ran towards him to try and grab him, settle him and stop him fighting with people and he turned round in a split second and just punched me really hard to the left cheek bone and I lost consciousness for a couple of seconds.”

She went to hospital and after being discharged she developed memory loss.

“I’m forgetting where I’m parking my car and I’m leaving all the lights on in my house at night, forgetting lots of things,” she said.

Insp Brown said she felt guilty for leaving her duty and for being off work.

“I think for any officer that’s off work for any period of time there is that guilt about leaving your colleagues on the front line and not being there to support them.”

Mr Boutcher said policing was a “tough” and “vital” job where officers face “difficult and dangerous situations” but should never be physically assaulted.

He said support for policing and officers needs to be “society wide” and recognised that “it is simply not acceptable to assault or attack police officers”.

“We cannot, and will not, simply stand by and accept it.”

The justice minister said that as a society we need to “move away from the idea that police officers should somehow just price this into the job they do”.

Naomi Long said it was “not acceptable that officers come under this kind of bombardment…that their lives are put at risk by being physically assaulted and attacked”.

She added that attacks on police officers should be taken “seriously” and cannot become a “recreational pastime where people bombard the police with petrol bombs or masonry” as it “causes long-term damage”.

The chair of the Policing Board Mukesh Sharma said being attacked was not anybody’s “normal day” at work and added that “nor should it be”.

Mr Sharma added that officers “step forward when others step back” putting their lives “on the line for others every day” and do not deserve to come to work to be “kicked, bitten or assaulted in any other way”.