Assaults cost Sussex Police hundreds of hours

Between 2004 and 2009, officers missed 1,592 working days.

Last year alone, 329 days were taken off by officers who had been assaulted by members of the public.

"In our role we have to deal with violent people and when we are restraining them or in confrontational situations, we can be assaulted, that is the nature of our job," said Inspector Chris Smith from the Adur and Worthing neighbourhood response team.

"We are a front-line uniform service and we do have a risk of being assaulted in our day-to-day duties.

Known risks

"We join this organisation knowing that there is a risk attached to our role.

"We know we are going to dealing with violent, aggressive people but it is what we signed up to do."

In 2004/5, Sussex Police had the eighth highest number of days lost in England and Wales, with officers taking 544 days off to recover from assaults.

This figure fell to 334 and 109 in 2005/6 and 2006/7 respectively but rose again to 276 in 2007/8.

Last year, the number of days rose by a further 19 per cent to 329.

The figures were released after a parliamentary question and show Metropolitan police officers lost the most days, with 23,284 recovery days in the last five years.

Twenty-five Sussex Police staff have also taken days off after assaults since 2004 and 17 of those days were in 2006/7.

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