To think many women aren't suited to all police situations

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Moment police officer sobs after 'being punched at Manchester Airport' Police officer sobs

Vile the police officers were attacked by the media and by politicans. However, this is a seperate issuse - I don't think she should have been sent to deal with this in the first place.

Women won’t join the police if they are told they can only do the background jobs

then what?

I thought it was really strange they released this clip, it made me feel uneasy they did

would they have released a clip of a male officer after being attacked?

just felt really off

It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog...to an extent. The problem is having the right tools. Strength, stamina and ability. There are plenty of short/light people who can scrap, and big lads can get dropped with one shot.

I'm a former competitive combat sports athlete and we train with a lot of police. The issue they have is that the most time-tested, efficient and reliable methods for putting someone down and subduing them, they're not allowed to use until things have gone seriously south.

As we saw here, the officers took an absolute pasting, and still got a load of shit for it. Can you imagine the optics if one of them had choked one of these scumbags out?

Fair enough, they have to operate within the law under normal circumstances, but it's my opinion that they should still be taught those techniques as mandatory in order to have a better chance of keeping themselves and others safe in situations like this.

As for sending smaller people to deal with violent offenders, while they do have protocols for people known to be violent, or big/strong, or well trained, generally police aren't being sent in there with the aim of getting into a physical altercation. With sprays, tazers and strength in numbers, the vast majority of people can be dealt with by two/three officers regardless of size.

Your point is generally correct though. Even at my ripe old age I'd still back myself to do a fair amount of damage to the average untrained man, but the fact is, if I were to end up in a street fight with a 6'3 bloke, I'm very likely going to end up getting seriously hurt whatever the outcome.

Knife wielding maniacs aren't scared of anyone though. Hence the maniac. And no police officer should have as their main plan for taking down a knife wielding maniacs being to tackle them on their own using their superior strength or karate skills.
Tasers, rushing someone as a group and armed response units are all better options. Hence police officers usually patrol in pairs of groups. As they were in this incident.

Half of the male police officers in our local station look like they’d be in serious trouble dealing with anything dangerous, they look like innocent little kids that would be knocked out in a second. I do hope those in charge choose carefully who they get to deal with certain situations

It must have been shocking and painful and I don't blame the officer for crying.
Women police officers are well established now and it's a bit late to wonder whether they are suitable for all roles; even if they aren't, situations and people are unpredictable.
I'm pretty sure that many men would have been less badly hurt by that attack, on account of having stronger neck muscles and possibly extra height. She's a brave woman to have been there.

Big, strong, physically fit men are needed in some situations precisely because I don’t want police to rely on tasers, sprays and batons and other more draconian forms of policing.

You know that Detectives go out and arrest dangerous offenders too, right? In fact they're possibly arresting some of the more dangerous offenders, albeit generally more pre-planned. Homicide, Counter Terrorism, Serious and Organised. There's going to be lots of Detectives in those teams and a proportion of them will be female.

IMO being a police officer seems like it could be a hard job with a wide variety of skills required. I'd imagine this woman was prepared to be involved in dangerous situations, but she wasn't prepared for being punched repeatedly in the face by a crazed thug. To be honest, I am pissed off that it should ever happen. TI wouldn't be likely to happen elsewhere but thugs here don't respect the police.

I am an avid feminist, smart, strong, brave, calm in a problem, but if a man punched me point blank in my face with rage like that I am certain I'd be crying and I'd probably also need psychological treatment.

https://www.polfed.org/events/police-bravery-awards-2025/

Plenty of kick ass female officers here! Look for the video of PC Nicola Crabbe arresting a man armed with a knife, I am in total awe of her!

The male officers with her were also attacked and one was on the ground being kicked. Should they have also not been in the police ?

The problem is These Thugs will be back on the streets in no time. It used to be if you attacked an officer it would mean a stiff sentence.
My dad suffered many injuries, broken hand, severed tendons, smashed eye socket etc. in the line of duty. The criminals got proper jail time.
These days you get hardly any time.

Yes but they're usually planned operations aren't they ?

Why shouldn’t she have been sent? It’s not the 1800’s, she signed the same contract as male officers. I have no issue attending a domestic or public order etc with a group of males. It’s part of my job and that is that. Just because you are a female, it doesn’t make you less competent.

Just for the record, I have also witnessed a male officer struggling with a male offender, my colleague (who is petite) flew past me, took the guy down and had him in cuffs within seconds. So no, I disagree with you.

Ha, I know a 6'4" tall, rugby playing officer who was knocked out cold by a 5'8" bloke.
Took the officer months to recover from the head injury (and resultant epilepsy).
One punch is all it takes.
No one is to blame except the utter thugs who use physical aggression.

Of course they are (although the first prominent open weight mixed martial arts tournament in 1993 was won by the smallest, lightest guy in the field), but we're not talking about competitive fighting here.

Size and strength are very important, but so are speed and stamina, which traditionally bigger people have less off. Most violent confrontations are over quickly but believe me, there is nothing that tires you out like fighting for 30 seconds or more. Then there's how you react to getting hit, and the adrenaline dump. You can't teach or train that.

The biggest thing though is actually knowing how to fight. The problem the police have is that many of the easiest, most effective ways of incapacitating someone, they're not allowed to use. As a result, many don't bother learning how to actually fight outside of their police training (which is woefully inadequate), so when a situation like this does come up, they could be 5'2 or 6'2 and the result will be the same.

Getting a bang in the face like that would stop a lot of people in their tracks male or female.
She got in about which is brave unlike the mugs filming on their phone's instead of helping if physically able to do so.

And I quote myself 'albeit generally preplanned'.

There will still be dangerous situations requiring dynamic risk assessments.

The male police officer said that he was smaller than the assailant and had his glasses knocked off, without which he could see no more than arm's length. Yes it would be lovely to have a dozen brick shithouses with lantern jaws, black belts in a variety of martial arts and 20/20 vision turn up the instant anything remotely kicks off but they can't just be magicked up. That female police officer looks like she is getting properly stuck in when she has hold of the guy's arm so she was giving it a right go. I don't think a pair of bollocks would have saved her.

Some posters keep wanging on about the front line- you can't get much more front line than the literal front line of riots in Belfast round this time of year when it's all getting a bit heated:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UVzzZiDCn9A&pp=ygUTMjAxMyByaW90cyBiZWxmYXN0IA%3D%3D

That was a good few years ago now- a female officer got her leg broken by a bit of masonry (a friend of mine who lived nearby said a waist high wall she used to pass was ankle high by the end of the week), a male officer got a broken jaw and a couple of dozen others were injured. I think about 1000 officers were flown in from Scotland, England and Wales to help. If the PSNI - who are probably world leaders in riot policing- are happy to let women do it, I think they know what they're talking about.

Not at all. DC’s go out on spontaneous arrests all the time

I think that men and woman officers have different strengths in different areas tbh. A lot of police work is talking to victims or diffusing situations before getting anywhere near this level (and that is more about ability to talk to people than masculine strength). There are many circumstances I'd rather a female officer turn up to.

Why are you a hypocrite? As long as you're not advocating equality that ignored strength differences, I don't see how you're a hypocrite.

Velmy is right, the biggest disadvantage is having to work according to strict rules and every time the cops lift a finger they have people squealing police brutality afterwards, even if the opponents were twice the size, hyped out of their faces on drugs and trying to rip heads off.

On Reddit I coincidentally was reading an old thread saying women police officers were less brave & won't jump straight into danger. Really? Open to studies from those in the know...

So the question posed is many women aren’t suited to all police situations.

Many women aren’t.

But the many women who join the police are.
They are trained, have batons, cuffs and taser where necessary.
They daily throw themselves in the face of danger.

Which part of policing are they not suited to, OP?

Cos I tell you what, I would rather have had my 5’4 female tenacious colleague with me every time than some men who were 6’4.

I’m disgusted that on a predominantly female board in 2025 we still have this sexism.

Can’t say I would want either of my kids, boy or girl, to be a first responder of any kind. I would probably try and encourage them to do something less dangerous, but I think they should both have the right to do it.

If women want to join the police (knowing they may well get battered) they should be able to do it, because the ramifications of formally excluding them from it are worse.