These days, police personnel have access to a wide range of protective clothing items, including gloves. Indeed, these items come in useful in a variety of circumstances.
One Humberside police constable may well be regretting the fact he was not wearing special gloves recently. According to a report in the Yorkshire Post, the individual was injured by a stinger device.
He had joined colleagues in pursuit of a vehicle when he pulled the tyre deflation equipment out of a box. One of its sharp spikes went straight through his nail and into his thumb, leaving him with a “puncture” injury.
The spike had not been fitted with a safety tip and the constable was not wearing standard issue gloves at the time of the incident.
In response to the accident, Humberside Police took around half of its stingers out of use so that rubber tips can be added.
A spokeswoman for the force stated: “We re-assessed the safety of a one particular brand of stinger that we were using following a minor injury caused to an officer’s finger and as such are now in the process of fitting rubber grommets to all the stingers in use across the force.
“The largest proportion of stingers in use by the force were already fitted with rubber grommets and therefore there was little impact on our operational policing.”
Meanwhile, John Blanchard, chairman of the Humberside Police Federation, added that stingers are a “proven way” of stopping criminals in vehicles. He went on to state: “I know they are very sharp, they are like a hydraulic needle.”
Police often have to perform potentially dangerous tasks, but with the right safety gear they can minimise risk. For example, they can take advantage of appropriate protective clothing at work to enhance their peace of mind and reduce danger levels.