MORE police officers in North Yorkshire are to be trained to use Tasers, following a rise in attacks in the line of duty.

Last weekend, officers in Malton were forced to use a Taser in the street against a wanted prisoner who had been causing a disturbance with a knife, and a female officer was punched in the face while trying to detain a drunk driver who had crashed near Scarborough.

Less than a fifth of officers are currently trained to use Tasers. But following an increase in reported assaults, North Yorkshire Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, said an agreement had been reached with chief officers to increase the number of Taser-trained officers.

According to NYPF figures, the number of officers who reported being injured through assault in the line of duty in 2013/14 was 34, and while this dropped to 30 in 2014/15, officers have been injured 44 times already in 2016 alone.

PC Brad Jackson, deputy secretary of NYPF, said: "We were concerned that the perception, that assaults on officers were ‘just part of the job’, was leading to under-reporting.

"That made it difficult to accurately determine the risks that police officers in North Yorkshire face. We therefore encouraged our members to ensure that incidents of violence against them were being properly recorded."

Already this year, The Press has reported on incidents of five officers being attacked within 24 hours, and both Acting Chief Constable Tim Madgwick and Acting Deputy Chief Constable Paul Kennedy have spoken out against the attacks on officers in the line of duty.

The Federation figures also record 89 assaults that didn't cause injury so far this year, and 35 officers were injured while restraining a suspect. Figures from 2014/15 show 168 non-injury assaults, and 87 injuries during restraining.

Figures from North Yorkshire Police said 115 officers were assaulted last year in the line of duty, while the average for the previous three years was 122.

PC Jackson said a new plan had been agreed to treat assaulted officers as victims of crime and supported by the force, but new training will make Tasers more available to officers from July.

During the first phase of training, 24 officers will attend, with more following in coming months. The Federation said it welcomed the opportunity for its officers to deal with immediate threats at a distance, with "a greatly reduced risk to themselves or the subject", after Tasers were deployed 93 times in eight months last year, but only discharged 16 times.

PC Jackson said: "We are pleased that the force has responded to our concerns positively.

"Tasers have proven to be a very effective way of dealing with a potentially violent individual. They allow the officer to maintain distance, minimising the risks to both. Simply drawing and aiming the Taser is often sufficient to safely conclude an incident, without it ever being actually used."

Superintendent Dave Hannan, head of specialist operations at North Yorkshire Police, said 265 of the force's 1,343 officers were Taser trained, and that on average, 122 officers were attacked every year. Last year, 115 officers were assaulted in the line of duty.

Supt Hannan said: "North Yorkshire is a very safe place, and thankfully the use of Tasers during incidents is rare. Taser is an excellent use of force option that officers can turn to as and when the situation they face justifies it to protect the public and themselves."