Norwich: Police Vow To Tackle Drunken Attacks After PC Is Injured

21 January 2014, 06:00

One of Norwich's top police officers is vowing to cut alcohol-fuelled trouble after a police officer was attacked at the weekend.

The Norwich PC continues to recover after suffering a broken leg during an alleged assault on Prince of Wales Road in the early hours of Sunday morning.
 
The officer was knocked unconscious and suffered a broken tibia during the incident which happened outside Beeline Taxi’s and Ossi’s takeaway shortly after 1am.
 
He'd been responding to reports of alleged assaults at a nightclub when the incident happened and attended with a colleague, a female Sergeant who was also injured.
 
Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Nick Dean said: "Tackling violent crime remains a priority for the force and we’ve worked hard with venues and partner agencies to address issues recognised as a key factor in disorder, including the late-night availability of alcohol.
 
"The vast majority of people who come for a night out in Norwich, which can be between 15,000 and 20,000 every weekend, will have a safe night with only a small percentage becoming victims of crime.
 
"Scenes of disorder are not unique to Norwich, they happen in towns and cities across the country. The challenge is how to tackle alcohol-fuelled violence and here in Norfolk we’ve taken a number of measures to improve safety and we continue to work with partners to enhance this further.”
 
Officers are also involved in Best Bar None, the Norwich Licensing Forum, Door Supervisors Forum and also support partner/volunteer agencies which operate in the night time economy including the SOS Bus, NHS First Responders and Norfolk Street Partnership.
 
Work also continues on applications for EMROs (Early Moring Restriction Orders) in the city centre in a bid to address the late-night availability of alcohol and more recently nightclubs were supplied with breathalysers to test how sober clubbers were before going into bars and clubs.
 
T/ACC Dean added: "While we hold enhanced policing operations throughout the year our approach to violence and disorder in the night time economy remains the same all-year round – violence and alcohol fuelled disorder will not be tolerated.”

The Norfolk Police Federation have also told Heart they plan to meet with Norfolk Police to talk about concerns they have over officer's safety.