Watch: 'Dreadful' Notts police assaults highlighted in TV programme

The bravery of police officers will be praised by Nottinghamshire’s top cop in a television programme about the dangerous situations they face.
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Chief Constable Craig Guildford will feature on Channel 5’s ‘Police Code Zero’ which is highlighting the growing number of assaults on police officers in the UK.

Mr Guildford is among a number of Chief Constables interviewed for the 10-part series and this latest episode will hear him praise the resolve of police officers.

He tells the programme: “I’m humbled by the endeavours of cops on a daily basis. They are mums, dads, uncles, aunts, friends – they are family members and there is a person behind the uniform.

“That person isn’t invincible. I think as a service now we recognise that more and more. Looking back at some of the assaults we’ve had, there’s been some dreadful examples, whereby somebody’s life has been dramatically changed.”

The documentary series looks at ‘Code Zero' callouts - the radio call sign issued by police officers who need urgent assistance.

Figures reveal there were nearly 37,000 assaults on police officers in England and Wales in the year ending March 2021.

Monday’s episode, which airs at 10pm, will feature an officer bitten on the finger while trying to make an arrest, as well as a new police officer who finds herself separated from her colleague and facing an angry young man - who decides to attack her.

The show airs at 10pmThe show airs at 10pm
The show airs at 10pm

Elsewhere, a PC will be seen climbing into a dark room through a broken window and facing a man who is armed with a shovel.

Mr Guildford is asked in the programme to describe the kind of person he looks for when recruiting police officers in Nottinghamshire.

He says: “The types of people I always look for, and I say this when I go and present to prospective candidates, is I’m after someone with a good moral compass.

“I’m not after someone who’s Einstein, I’m after someone who can take a step back, judge things and make decisions.

"They must take appropriate actions and be morally and physically courageous – but most importantly have that moral compass that points in the right direction.”

The increase in assaults is something that has been repeatedly challenged in Nottinghamshire, not just towards police but also fellow emergency service colleagues.

Over the last few months both locally and nationally there has been an increase in attacks on emergency workers, with police in particular seeing incidents on a weekly basis.

Concerns have been echoed nationally with attacks on police officers topping 100 a day, and work is now being done to understand why this significant increase is happening in order to work out how to counter it.

In April 2020, key workers from across Nottinghamshire came together to launch a video plea to the public following a spate of over 60 incidents where frontline workers had been deliberately coughed on or spat at while on the frontline of dealing with the Coronavirus outbreak.

The campaign has received support from the NHS, Nottinghamshire Police, Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, East Midlands Ambulance Service, the Ministry of Justice, a number of the county’s local authorities and other bodies.