A sad reality is that some careers garner more risk to safety than others. No one takes up a job wanting to get hurt, however there is an understanding that certain vocations present hazardous situations and that has come to be accepted.
In this set of articles, I aim to demonstrate the peril that individuals put themselves in to help others, and the potential outcomes that can relate to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA).
The first part of this series covers police officers. A vital, yet vastly underappreciated role that is arguably the most dangerous of the trades I intend to cover. A police officer aims to maintain law and order in their designated area by preventing crime, protecting members of the public and, in doing so, reducing the fear that any sort of transgression will affect them.
Whilst, as you can expect, this brings a significant amount of risk – attacks on police officers are simply not part of their job description. Over recent years, attacks on emergency workers have increased significantly and the Ministry of Justice reported that there had been 26,000 assaults on police officers in the year ending September 2018.
During last month’s New Year’s Eve celebrations, a knifeman went on a rampage in Manchester Victoria Station, stabbing a man, a woman and a British Transport Police officer. In attempting to subdue the offender, the officer suffered a stab wound to his shoulder.
While Manchester Chief Constable Ian Hopkins noted that the police officers “acted with incredible bravery in tackling the armed attacker” to ensure “he was immediately detained” and the injuries suffered are not considered to be life-threatening, the officer who suffered the stab wound will have to live with the physical and psychological scars left by this attack forever.
This frightening incident is not the first attack on an officer of the law and, unfortunately, it will not be last. In November of last year, an officer was approached and attacked in an unprovoked attack outside Ilford station. The officer was stabbed in a senseless act of violence which had no semblance of reason behind it.
In another incident, shocking body camera footage was released by Lincolnshire Police, in which a man proceeds to assault two female police officers, repeatedly punching one of them in the head causing facial injuries.
These heinous crimes are not the only type of assaults police officers have suffered as of late. On 7th January 2019, a man was jailed for three-and-a-half years for sexually assaulting, biting and using a for sale sign to attack two female police officers in Sheffield.
When the two officers were called out to reports of a man damaging parked cars, they were confronted by Luca Jelic, 30, shouting sexually offensive comments at them, including, “lovely girls for me to rape”. A violent struggle ensued, with Jelic grabbing one of the female police officers on the crotch, overpowering her and rendering her unable to remove his hands.
It was not until the other officer present managed to use CS gas (tear gas) and help pin Jelic down that they managed to stop the attack. Jelic was found to be high on ecstasy at the time and the officer was said to have felt violated and distressed noting that she “had never found herself in a more frightening and disturbing situation” in her career.
In October 2018, an officer sustained serious head injuries after being deliberately driven into by a car. Police were attending reports of an assault in Leicester when a white Mercedes was seen with reports suggesting someone inside the vehicle was in possession of a firearm. When attempts were made to stop the car, it was intentionally driven into the officer leaving him with serious injuries.
All the above incidents meet the parameters of a Criminal Injury Compensation claim and present an opportunity for those wronged, while simply doing their jobs, to claim some remuneration. While any potential award can never make up for the trauma of the incidents these officers have suffered, it can go a long way in helping them move on.
In the examples above, the officer who suffered the sexual assault at the hands of Luca Jelic would be looking at a minimum of £1,000 before factoring in any other physical injuries or psychological injuries that she suffered.
The officer who sustained serious head injuries due to his attempted murder could be looking at an award of at least £1,500. Depending on the severity of his injuries, this potential award could rise drastically.
It is also important to clear up the confusion that may arise from the CICA scheme. Paragraph 5(2) details eligibility of an injury sustained in the workplace. It states that any ‘risk taken for any purpose described…in the course of a person’s work will not be considered to be exceptional if it would normally be expected of them in the course of that work.’
The purposes described are apprehending an offender, preventing a crime, containing the consequences of a crime or assisting a constable who is acting for one or more of the purposes previously described.
This provision was introduced for minor, incidental injuries suffered as a consequence of a field of work. It does not aim to exclude injuries such as the ones above which are certainly above and beyond what would be expected of a police officer. As West Midlands Chief Constable Dave Thompson noted after an attack on PC Emma Agyei in May 2017, “It is never acceptable to assume that assaults upon police officers and staff should be tolerated, they are not ‘part of the job’.”
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