The organisation believes the diversion of officers from frontline duties to staff neighbourhood policing and special investigation units - along with having to tackle an “inordinate burden” of paperwork - has left those called to incidents at greater risk.

Insp Bob Pitt, chair of the Police Federation’s South Yorkshire branch, said: “We are playing with the safety of response team officers. We need sufficient numbers to be able to stamp their authority on situations they are called to.”

Figures being presented to a meeting of South Yorkshire Police Authority this week revealed there were 1,612 incidents from 2001 to 2006 where officers were injured through assaults, violent arrests or struggles with suspects.

The annual toll has risen slightly during the same period, from 306 incidents to 334. Statistics are not yet available for 2006/7.

Sgt Peter Hilton, of Upperthorpe and Hillsborough Safer Neighbourhood Team, is recovering after suffering serious leg injuries during a struggle with a suspect, while another officer was beaten in a city centre bar. Insp Pitt said: “A major concern is we are seeing fewer police on response duties, while officers are spending inordinate amounts of time on paperwork.”

Insp Pitt said that, in recent years, the bureaucratic burden has been increased through changes introduced by the Government, such as police having to spend hours preparing paperwork for the Crown Prosecution Service.

He added that the creation of Safer Neighbourhood Teams, which provide community policing, along with specialist units to tackle different types of crimes, has caused further problems by diverting officers from traditional response duties.Insp Pitt said: “There has been a fundamental shift in policing styles, while uniformed duty groups are getting so threadbare there are precious few officers left and they are often overstretched.

“A shortage of officers means they face an increased risk when responding to incidents due to lack of numbers.”

Insp Pitt welcomed improvements in protection for officers, such as body armour and gas sprays, but added: “We have lost sight of the fact we still need to have a core of police who are available to do what they always have done: responding to emergency incidents.”

Inspector Shaun Morley, of South Yorkshire Police personnel department, said: “There will always be a degree of risk for officers working on the frontline and so it is expected a small number of these officers will be injured, despite every effort to ensure their safety and security.”