(2) how many incidents of assault or abuse of police officers were reported in Northern Ireland in each of the last five years; how many such incidents involved the use of knives; and what steps are being taken to reduce such incidents.
The safety of police officers is a primary consideration for the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
Measures to protect police officers from assault form part of the ongoing development of equipment and tactics undertaken by the PSN1 in consultation with the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Home Office.
Operational officers receive personal safety training on a regular basis, the content of which reflects their role and this training is reviewed in line with both local and national trends. Recent developments include training in the skills required for single officer patrolling.
Officer personal safety training includes tactics in the early resolution of conflict through effective verbal communication, the use of unarmed skills, batons, incapacitant spray and handcuffs, all of which assist in improving officer safety when policing violent or potentially violent situations.
Officers are issued with dual-purpose body armour, commonly referred to as stab vests, and a training package, designed to protect officers from an attacker in possession of an edged weapon, is being delivered to operational officers throughout the PSNI.
The PSNI have provided the following data relating to the number of such offences where the victim is a member of the Police Service.
2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 Total number of offences 2,210 2,191 2,325 2,699 2,928 Number of offences involving a knife 11 6 11 16 7 Notes: 1. The figures relate to offences where the victim is described as a member of the Police Service; they do not specifically relate to police officers on duty. They include abuse of a verbal nature where this is deemed serious enough to constitute a criminal offence. Obstructing and resisting police offences are excluded from the figures as from 1 April 2003, they are no longer counted within the recorded crime series. 2. Please note that these figures are based on operational police data and as such are provisional and may be subject to revision.