Sadly, from time to time the majority of officers will get injured whilst on duty in the police service.

I have been injured a number of times but there was one injury that stood out because it was new to me. When I was working on shift I got called to a cell over the radio because a male was self-harming in their cell. So, myself and a few other males attended the cell to see what was wrong.

The detainee explained that he was frustrated because he had been in custody for so long, so he would continue to self-harm by punching and head-butting walls until he gets interviewed. Obviously, we could not let him continue to self-harm, so we decided to handcuff him and stay with him until he calmed down.

Unfortunately, this did not work. The detainee, in fact, escalated his aggressive demeanour and tried to continue to self-harm. One of my colleagues and myself intervened to stop him but as we did this, the detainee bit my right forearm, breaking the skin.

My colleague and I shouted for assistance because the detainee was still escalating his violent behaviour. To which he was finally placed on the floor handcuffed, back-to-back, and placed in leg restraints.

As he was now being closely supervised on the floor, I excused myself from the cell and went to go and see the custody health care professional. She explained to me that because the skin was broken (Which wasn’t bleeding a lot, to be honest), I would have to leave work and head to the hospital to get injections.

Again, this is a very stressful time, because you think of all the diseases you could potentially catch from someone. It can really have a negative impact on your mindset and moral. For me, the trade-off of potentially catching a disease by working in the police service was not worth it and was another reason why I wanted to go into business for myself. Because the working environment is different, no one injuries you, you don’t catch disease in business and you certainly don’t get bitten.

And it’s not just me who went through these things obviously its many other officers too, who get punched, kicked, spat at, elbowed and bitten. As I’ve mentioned as an officer you may find yourself getting injured from time to time from assaults from people who may not take a liking to the police.

If you want to carry on being assaulted from time to time, well that’s up to you and I hope you don’t get injured too seriously, but if you want to find out how you can avoid getting injured by becoming your own boss and building your own successful business then click here.