Many of our regular readers will know, that we have been campaigning to rectify a ridiculous situation present within the Metropolitan Police at the moment, where response team officers are not allowed Spit Guards (SGs).
We have been following the common-sense-defying status-quo for a good few months now and have been impressed by the Metropolitan Police Federation as they continue to put pressure on the Commissioner to allow response team officers to carry SGs.
City of London Police are afforded protection from the appalling individuals who spit on officers. As are the British Transport Police (BTP).
Officers back at the police station are also afforded protection from the repulsive & wretched individuals who like to phlegm on officers, but the men and women in the Met who are on the front line aren’t…
We have racked our brains in order to try and work out why Met Officers seem to be ‘fair game’ (in the eyes of the ‘powers that be’) when it comes to the risk posed by disease carrying spit – especially when said spit also contains blood.
It was only two years ago, that a 35-year-old Ukrainian Police Officer died having contracted tuberculosis after being spat on.
We even once spoke to the Met Commissioner when we called Nick Ferrari on his morning breakfast show on LBC Radio.
In truth, it would appear that the pressure being put on the Commissioner is coming from the dreaded spectre of the omni-present ‘political correctness’.
I have seen the commissioner give numerous interviews and she quite clearly DOES care about the safety of her officers.
So why the dithering?
The Met Police Federation were asked by the Commissioner to compile data surrounding how often officers are spat on.
But their data already confirmed something that everyone with an ounce of common sense already knew:
2,331 Metropolitan Police officers spat at on duty in the past two years. That’s 97 a month. 22 a week. 3 every single day.
It won’t be long now until SGs are issued to response team officers.
But let’s just hope that, in the interim, no officer contracts an unpleasant disease having been subjected to a volley of phlegm.
Because many people will ask as to why, when the safety equipment that could have prevented them from getting the disease was available, why weren’t they given it?
The Met has a duty to ensure the safety of its Officers and to mitigate the risk faced by officers as they police London.
So why the delay?
If an officer does contract a disease having been spat on, then no doubt Susan Hall, the GLA Member who quizzed the Mayor in the video below, will also demand answers as will we and as will the Met Police Federation.
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