Police officers have been left ‘dangerously exposed’ and the streets ‘unsafe’ as a result of Government cuts, MPs said yesterday.
Condemning the ‘sickening murder’ of PC Andrew Harper, MPs called on Home Secretary Priti Patel to ‘get a grip’ and bring an end to the ‘terrifying rise in violent crime’.
They also called for tougher jail terms for those who attacked officers, after shocking figures revealed how many offenders dodged prison altogether.
Independent MP John Woodcock said: ‘The whole country will feel sorry at the terrible death of PC Harper and fury at the way sick criminals felt able to target a police officer as he tried to serve the public. The new Home Secretary must get a grip of the terrifying rise in violent crime on our streets.’
Condemning the ‘sickening murder’ of PC Andrew Harper, MPs called on Home Secretary Priti Patel to ‘get a grip’ and bring an end to the ‘terrifying rise in violent crime’ (pictured: PC Andrew Harper and mother Deborah)
Priti Patel, who has said she wants criminals to ‘feel terror’ at the thought of offending
Earlier this week it emerged the number of prolific offenders avoiding prison for assaulting police officers had almost doubled over the past decade.
This was despite soaring levels of attacks, with frontline officers increasingly being bitten, punched and kicked on duty, according to The Times.
Last year 1,607 offenders with at least 26 convictions or cautions were not handed prison sentences. The figure was almost twice the 828 ‘super prolific’ offenders who avoided jail in 2008. Labour MP Wes Streeting said: ‘This sickening murder of a police officer follows two attempted murders in as many weeks. No family should have to go through what PC Harper’s family are going through. We can’t respond as though it is business as usual.
‘Single crew deployments must end immediately, sentences should be strengthened to provide a tougher deterrent and we need to provide better protective equipment to police, including tasers…’
Newlywed PC Andrew Harper had married his fiancée Lissie on July 18, and they were due to go on honeymoon together next week
Meanwhile figures show more than 20 emergency workers are assaulted every day in the line of duty with 4,000 attacks on police officers, hospital staff and prison officers in six months.
Merseyside Police Deputy Chief Constable Serena Kennedy appealed directly to the attackers this week after six of her officers were injured in a 24-hour window. DCC Kennedy told the culprits: ‘My message to those who carry violence against police is this: please remember, whatever you think of us, one day you or your families may need our help too.’
The incidents comes just days after another officer – PC Gareth Phillips, 42 – was knocked down and driven over as he tried to stop a suspected car thief in Birmingham. The traffic officer, who has served in the force for nearly 20 years, remains in intensive care.
In another attack that shocked the nation last week, PC Stuart Outten, 28, was attacked with a machete after pulling over a van driver in East London.
Meanwhile retired police officer Norman Brennan – who heads up the Protect the Protectors campaign and served for 31 years – said last night: ‘What we’re sick and tired of is, today there will be platitudes from the Prime Minister downwards. Platitudes don’t challenge the criminal justice system. Promises that are enacted do.’
‘Stay with me…keep breathing’: Colleague reveals he desperately tried to save murdered PC, 28, who was ‘dragged to his death’ by car at scene of burglary
By Jemma Buckley, Michael Bedigan and Andy Dolan for the Daily Mail and Henry Martin For MailOnline
A colleague of the newlywed police officer who was killed while responding to reports of a burglary begged the fallen officer to ‘stay with me, keep breathing’ as he lay dying in a country lane.
A witness told of the heartbreaking scenes as fellow officers fought to save PC Andrew Harper, 28, after he was mown down by a ‘getaway car’ on Thursday night, just four weeks after he married his fiancée Lissie.
The householder, who asked not to be named, came out of his home at around 11.30pm on Thursday after hearing a commotion in a lane off the A4 near Reading.
As police worked inside forensic tents near the property yesterday, the witness said: ‘When I came outside I could see one patrol car facing the A4 and the other facing in the other direction. The officer’s crewmate was shouting, saying “Stay with me, stay with me. Keep breathing.” Those words will stay with me.
PC Harper was allegedly struck by a car in Berkshire and dragged under it for a distance
The incident at 11.30pm Thursday took place next to the 12-bedroom Braeburn Lodge care home for the elderly (pictured: PC Andrew Harper)
‘He was crouched over the officer’s body, which was lying on the lane.
‘Ambulances and more police cars arrived – it was like the Blackpool illuminations. I went out into the lane to see if the police needed any help and an officer turned to me and said: “Leave the area – this is a crime scene.”’
Asked if there was a police pursuit in the run-up to PC Harper being hit by the vehicle, Thames Valley Police Chief Constable John Campbell said only that his fallen officer had been involved in a ‘response to a reported burglary’.
The senior officer said PC Harper was a ‘highly regarded, popular member of the team’ who was known across the force.
He said the traffic officer – based at Abingdon, Oxfordshire, around 30 miles from where the incident happened – had been outside his marked patrol car when he was ‘dragged along by a vehicle’, in what was ‘obviously a very distressing’ incident for the colleagues who witnessed it.
Pictured: Police officers at a travellers’ camp near the scene where PC Harper was killed
Police officers at the scene today in Sulhamstead, Berkshire, after a detective was killed
Flowers are laid near where Thames Valley Police office Andrew Harper was killed
Mr Campbell said it had been ‘an extremely dark day’ for his force – and said the fact PC Harper had only been married four weeks added to the force’s ‘angst’ and to that of PC Harper’s family.
He declined to say whether the vehicle which hit PC Harper, who joined the force as a special constable in 2010 and became a police officer a year later, was stolen.
The force’s flags were flying at half-mast as a sign of respect ‘in honour and memory of Andrew’, he said, adding: ‘The officer was well-known across the force so it is felt very personally… by the whole police family.’
The incident took place at the crossroads of Ufton Lane and Lambdens Hill, near the village of Sulhamstead – close to Bucklebury where the Duchess of Cambridge’s parents Carole and Michael Middleton live.
PC Harper(pictured) had been planning to take part in a charity run at the Dirty Weekend 2020 Burghley, a 20-mile obstacle course, for Children with Cancer UK
PC Harper had married his fiancee Lissie Harper just a month ago and were starting a new life together as a married couple
Pictured: Officers lay flowers at the scene where PC Andrew Harper was killed in Berkshire
Andy Fiddler, from the Thames Valley Police Federation, added: ‘This is totally devastating news.
‘All our thoughts – and the thoughts of the entire police family across the UK – are with the family, friends and close colleagues of PC Andrew Harper.’
Last night, Anthony Stansfeld, Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner, said: ‘I speak for everybody at Thames Valley Police when I say that I am deeply shocked and saddened by the death of PC Andrew Harper while on duty. He was a young officer, only recently married, and looking forward to a long and successful career.
‘Today, assaults on police officers have become far too common. I am concerned that attacks on police officers are no longer regarded within some communities with the same level of seriousness as they were previously.
Police remained at the scene today, which was still cordoned off while evidence was gathered (pictured: PC Harper with a friend)
‘In the past, most criminals were careful not to attack a police officer. But as sentences across the board have become more lenient, so the number of assaults increased. There would seem to be a clear correlation.
‘The tragic death of PC Harper is a wake up call for our criminal justice system. That it happened is a sad reflection on society today.
‘The majority of the public are law-abiding, but we have a small hardcore who cause a totally disproportionate amount of crime. I hope that this can now be addressed.
‘It is not as if this problem has come as a surprise. It must now be dealt with.’
The Independent Office for Police Conduct said it had been made aware of the officer’s death, due to possible issues around a police pursuit, but is not investigating.
Police attended a traveller site near Burghfield Common about two miles from where PC Harper died, and officers were seen blocking entrance to the site as they carried out enquiries in relation to the death of PC Harper
Four weeks ago, PC Andrew Harper was posing for pictures on his wedding day.
He cut the cake with new wife Lissie next to a sign reading ‘Happily Ever Harper’.
But yesterday it emerged the officer was the latest victim of Wild West Britain when he was mown down and ‘dragged along by a vehicle’ while responding to a burglary in Berkshire.
Ten people – including a boy of 13 – have been arrested after what Prime Minister Boris Johnson described as a ‘mindless and brutal’ crime. PC Harper and his bride were due to go on honeymoon next week, but late on Thursday night the couple’s dreams were shattered in the cruellest fashion when the officer lost his life in the line of duty.
Society has ‘less fear of the police’, officer says after machete attack
The boss of the officer stabbed by a machete said last week that people in modern day society have ‘less fear of the police’.
Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Tucker on Good Morning Britain last week
Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Tucker is head of the unit including Stuart Otten, who was attacked last Thursday in Leyton, East London.
He said that the attack which shocked the nation was a ‘symptom of people having less fear of the police’.
Mr Tucker added: ‘It’s shocking, but unfortunately it’s not uncommon. I’ve been in police for a long time — there’s certainly a sense of a lack of respect, not just for police but for authority.’
A witness said he heard an officer yelling: ‘Stay with me, stay with me, keep breathing,’ as PC Harper lay fatally injured in the road. Last night, just over two miles from the crime scene, police were searching a travellers’ site, strewn with litter and children’s toys.
PC Harper’s death triggered a fresh debate over the level of serious crime on Britain’s streets. Only yesterday, Richard Atkins QC, the chairman of the Bar Council, warned that criminals were ‘going about their business unchallenged’.
MPs from all parties were united in their condemnation of the murder, describing it as ‘sickening’ and saying police officers had been left ‘dangerously exposed’.
Home Secretary Priti Patel, who declared last month that she wanted to see criminals ‘feel terror’ on the streets, said she was ‘devastated and appalled’ by PC Harper’s murder.
Mr Johnson, who has pledged to hire another 20,000 police officers to get a grip of the problem, said he was ‘shocked and appalled’ and admitted ‘we are seeing too much violent crime on our streets’.
PC Harper’s devastated family described the officer – a ‘highly regarded’ member of Thames Valley Police – as ‘the loveliest person that you will ever meet’.
PC Harper, who became a regular officer in 2011 after joining as a special constable a year earlier, had attended the reported break-in near the village of Sulhamstead with a colleague at 11.30pm on Thursday night.
While it is unclear exactly what happened or what was being targeted in the burglary, PC Harper was injured on a lane just off the A4 Bath Road between Reading and Newbury – a crossroads next to the 12-bedroom Braeburn Lodge care home.
At an emotional press conference, Chief Constable John Campbell said officers were working ‘hard and diligently to find out what happened’. He said: ‘What we do know is Andrew had been dragged along by a vehicle’, adding that all ten suspects had been arrested within an hour of the incident.
Ten people were arrested on suspicion of murder after the incident in Berkshire on Thursday
PC Harper’s family including his grandmother Maureen and uncle Dale have paid tribute
A resident in nearby Burghfield said a police helicopter hovered over a travellers’ site from midnight until about 4am yesterday.
PC Harper married Lissie, also 28, in Oxfordshire on July 18 in the grounds of Ardington House, a listed stately home built in 1720.
Mrs Harper posted wedding pictures online and said the couple ‘could not have asked for more’. She added: ‘The sun was shining and the venue was incredible.’
PC Harper’s uncle Dale Shrimpton, 56, said: ‘We are devastated. He was the loveliest person that you will ever meet. I can’t begin to tell you how we feel. We all loved him very much. He didn’t have a bad bone in his body.’
Met Chief Superintendent Sally Benatar wrote on Twitter: ‘So sad to read this. PC Harper was the officer in the case when my then husband was arrested for domestic violence in 2016. He was on Thames Valley Response then.
The adventurous couple, shown here taking a selfie as on a river on an exotic holiday, were due to go on honeymoon imminently
The couple’s family spoke with great pride about the bravery he had shown as his life was taken in the line of duty
The couple married at the luxurious location of Ardington House in Oxfordshire last month
A police investigator at the scene of the incident after the officer was killed in Sulhamstead
‘He was brilliant and gave me the courage to take steps to change my life. I can’t thank him enough. He was a top officer.’
PC Harper’s death comes after PC Stuart Outten was stabbed in the head in Leyton, east London, on August 8. Days later a 42-year-old West Midlands Police officer suffered serious injuries when he was run over with his own vehicle.
Mr Johnson said: ‘The murder of PC Andrew Harper is a mindless and brutal crime and obviously all our thoughts are with his family, his friends and his colleagues.
‘When I think of the bravery that PC Andrew Harper showed in intercepting those criminals, I think of the risks that the police run every day to keep us safe.’
Police at the scene as a man lays a bunch of flowers near where the officer was killed
Police officers at the scene on the crossroads of Ufton Lane and Lambdens Hill in Sulhamstead
He added: ‘This is a very rare occurrence, it is an absolute tragedy that a police officer should lose his life in the course of his duties and of course we will do everything we can to keep our officers safe.’
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the death highlighted the need for a boost to police numbers. He added: ‘Let’s just think for a moment of the horror of it, but also for the need for more police officers to be able to respond to disorder in our society.’
Home affairs committee chairman Yvette Cooper said: ‘Police officers like PC Harper demonstrate extraordinary bravery every day, and his death is a tragic reminder of the immense sacrifices made to keep us safe.’
