WORKINGTON MP Mark Jenkinson has backed calls for tougher sentences for those who attack police in Cumbria.
The proposals have been mooted as part of a raft of measures intended to give better protection to officers.
Mark also wants to see greater recognition of the daily risks they take in the line of duty without a thought for their own safety.
He is supporting Government’s plan for a Police Covenant – now out for consultation – and hopes measures to crack down on anyone found guilty of
assaulting an officer will be included in the final package.
Mark said: “I am delighted that our courageous officers will soon receive greater protection in what is a dangerous job.
“We owe it to them to recognise the risks they take in keeping us safe across such a large county, with all the challenges that this throws up.
“One attack is one too many. This is why I want the Covenant to include tougher sentences for those who attack the very people who put their own lives on the line to keep us safe.”
Mark is part of Blue Collar Conservatism (BCC), a group of MPs who want to hear from voters about what policies the Government should be delivering.
The group campaigned for the Covenant last year and secured backing for their demand from all 19 Conservative Police and Crime Commissioners up and
down the country, the Police Superintendents’ Association and the National Police Federation of England and Wales.
As it stands a 12-month sentence can be given under the crime of assaulting an emergency worker – a sentence doubled by Government last year. The BCC wants sentences increased for anyone found guilty of assaulting a police officer.
Latest Home Office figures show there were 352 assaults on Cumbria Constabulary officers in 2018/19 of which 82 resulted in injury.
