Police in the North East used spit hoods hundreds of times during the pandemic - as criminals tried to “weaponise” their saliva to make officers fearful they could infect them with coronavirus.
Spit hoods are breathable head coverings that prevent a suspect from spitting at officers and reduce the risk of biting or passing on transmissible diseases.
ONS data shows the use of spit and bite guards soared in 2020/21, with officers across Northumbria Police and Durham Constabulary using them on 522 occasions in total.
That is a 21% rise on the 430 times the tactic was used during the previous year.
Go here for the latest crime news and breaking North East police updates
The use of spit hoods is a matter for individual chief constables, and therefore varied considerably between the three police forces in the North East.
While Northumbria Police used spit hoods on 455 occasions (a 22% rise from 410 uses the previous year), officers from Cleveland Police did not use the tactic at all during the pandemic.
Durham Constabulary deployed spit and bite guards on 67 occasions, quadruple the 16 uses of the tactic in 2019/20.
Although the mesh hoods were mainly used on adults, they were also used by to restrain children aged between 11 and 17 on 44 occasions last year across the two forces.
Northumbria Police used them 36 times on children, with two of those individuals aged under 16, and they were used on eight occasions by Durham Police.
The tactic was also used against older people aged 65 and over twice, on both occasions by Northumbria Police, who said that they had 391 officers spat at over the same period.
Use of spit hoods has proved controversial in the past, with human rights charities such as Liberty calling them “dangerous, degrading and unjustified”.
And last year, following a review of the use of spit and bite guards in Northern Ireland, Police Ombudsman Marie Anderson said they should not be used on children and young people.
Responding to the figures, Northumbria Police spokesperson said: “Spitting is a shocking form of assault and during a pandemic where a deadly virus is highly transmittable, we will take appropriate protective measures to help ensure the safety of our officers, staff, volunteers and the communities we are proud to serve.
“Our officers have been trained in the safe, proportionate and effective use of spit guards, which are a nationally recognised piece of personal protective equipment.
"Importantly, they can also help resolve a situation using a lower use of force than alternative restraint, so they are in fact better for the person concerned.”
A Durham Constabulary spokesperson, meanwhile, said: “Officers regularly respond to difficult and dangerous situations, and they need to be provided with the right equipment to enable them to do so safely, in order to protect the public, victims, suspects and themselves.
“The use of a spit hood is not a decision an officer will take lightly. However, spitting at officers is abhorrent and will not be tolerated - particularly during the pandemic with the threat of Covid-19.
“Our officers have every right to return home safely at the end of a shift protecting the public.”
At the start of the pandemic, in March 2020, the Crown Prosecution Service announced that “coronavirus coughs” directed at emergency service workers would be treated as common assault and punishable by up to 12 months in prison.
The CPS intervention came after numerous reports of police, shop workers and vulnerable groups being deliberately coughed at by people claiming to have the disease.
A spokesperson from the Police Federation, which represents officers in England and Wales, said: “During the Covid-19 outbreak, we have repeatedly seen some people spitting at police officers in an attempt to either deliberately infect them, or to cause them to fear they will become infected.
"This had to be addressed and it was reassuring to see the Government support our call for tough measures to be introduced, in an attempt to deter future similar offences, as well as some strong sentences being handed down by courts, sending the right message.
“As Covid-19 is not only transmitted through the air but by contact with contaminated surfaces, spit guards help to prevent the saliva, phlegm or other bodily fluids being weaponised and contaminating surfaces. This protects not just officers, but the wider public we serve.
“The equipment has been tested to rigorous standards to ensure it is safe and policing readily encourages this accountability. This approach is backed up by the training officers undergo in its use - training which emphasises our duty of care on the individual(s) we are dealing with.
“While spit guards themselves are a use of force tactic, the use of them during the pandemic has meant that police officers have not had to use higher levels of force, such as different types of restraint, should somebody spit at an officer."
Spit and bite guards were first introduced by Cambridgeshire Police in 2004, but it wasn’t until 2019 that they were approved for frontline use by Britain’s biggest police force, the Met Police.
ONS data shows that during 2020/21 police in England and Wales deployed spit and bite guards a total of 9,025 times, a 26% increase on the 7,172 occasions the controversial equipment was used the previous year.
The vast majority of suspects who were restrained with a spit and bite guard were male and Black people were more than three times as likely to be restrained with a spit hood than White suspects.
Spit and bite guards were most commonly used in incidents involving alcohol, which played a factor in 5,252 uses, along with drugs (4,274 uses) and mental health issues (3,634).
Most suspects who needed to be restrained with a spit and bite guard were arrested (7,130), another 858 needed hospital treatment, 694 were detained under the Mental Health Act and 23 were released with no need for any further action.
For crime news in your area direct to your inbox every day, go here to sign up to our free newsletter
