WORKING in pairs not only provides police officers with better protection from attacks, but also makes officers more proactive, Essex Police Federation has said.

Chairman Steve Taylor was speaking after national research showed that officers were much more vulnerable to assault when working alone – and that the majority of officers are usually single crewed.

Mr Taylor said: “Being double crewed doesn’t give an officer complete protection from abuse or assault.

“It is important to make that point. But what I can absolutely say is officers are more proactively productive when they’re double crewed.

“Officers feel safer and are prepared to give that little bit more.

“If you are running from job to job and you see the car that doesn’t quite look right and you’re on your own. Really? Are you going to stop it?

“You’ve got jobs coming out of your ears. You’re probably going to crack on with what you’ve got on your plate. When you’re double crewed you’re more inclined to be more intrusive, to be more proactive and those benefits are clear.

“From a welfare point of view, knowing that someone’s got your back enables you to make the right decisions and follow through.

“Whereas when you’re single crewed sometimes discretion is the better part of valour, and you have to live to fight another day – rather than put your own personal safety at risk.”

Steve said the Federation understands why Essex Police has to employ single crewing – under the name “safe crewing” – as “an evil that the force deems to be necessary” but called for it to enable more officers to work in pairs for greater protection.

A national survey from the Police Federation of England and Wales found that 73 per cent of officers were single crewed “often or always” in the past 12 months, and that seven in 10 were verbally assaulted, more than half were verbally threatened and two in five became the victim of an unarmed physical attack at least once per month.

You can see the results at www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10439463.2017.1417990.