Sheffield police: Call to put 'bull bars' on cop cars to halt 'ramming' injuries

South Yorkshire Police Federation chair Steve Kent said bull bars could be necessary after 21 officers were injured in ramming incidents last year. | NW

A police federation chief has called for American-style bull bars on police cars to drive down ramming injuries.

South Yorkshire Police Federation chair Steve Kent said the controversial measure could be necessary after 21 officers were injured last year.

Nationally, 244 cops reported injuries after being involved in incidents where police vehicles were deliberately rammed, often by criminals trying to avoid arrest, the federation says. This was up from 219 the year previous and 200 in 2022.

The research was from a Freedom of Information request and prompted by reports of incidents stating an offender was “unarmed” despite using their car as a weapon against officers.

Mr Kent said: "This may be a controversial view, but we could reconsider equipment on police cars, such as American-style bull bars on the front. I know there's resistance to that because of the danger to pedestrians, but there's got to be some kind of device that can be put on police cars to protect officers in these scenarios.”

He added: “The figures for South Yorkshire are very concerning; they are high for the size of our force. This is a massive issue.

"It's a risk for police officers that often gets ignored by the media and the IOPC. There's no quick fix, other than the courts handing down appropriate sentences for people who do it.

“There's no two ways about it - using a car as a weapon is no different to using a knife, a machete or even a firearm. It could kill people, and that needs to be reflected in the courts."

Other forces reporting high numbers of officers injured by car-ramming were Lancashire Police, Merseyside Police and South Wales Police.

The force with the highest number by far was the Police Service of Northern Ireland, with 66 injured officers in 2024.

But 19 out of 48 forces were unable to supply figures of how many of their officers were injured in this way, due to the time and cost of finding the data.

This suggests that many forces do not automatically collate or measure these figures, and that the real numbers of injured officers are much higher, the federation says.