Police officers who have been injured in the riots are being offered support at a centre in Harrogate
Riot weary police officers are being offered support in Harrogate after a wave of violent disorder in towns and cities swept across England this week.
Brave police officers who have been impacted by the riots are being offered mental and physical support at The Police Treatment Centre at Harlow Moor Road in Harrogate .
A registered charity, St Andrews in Harrogate offers treatment and support - including intensive, police-specific, physiotherapy and rehabilitation - for injured and ill police officers, retired officers, and police staff.
One of two treatment such centres in the UK, the other being Castlebrae in Auchterarder in Perthshire, in normal times, almost 4,000 members of the ‘Police Family’ are helped to recover each year.
But the summer violence has not only traumatised local communities caught up in the unrest but also affected scores of police officers who have been subject to unprovoked attacks by racist mobs.
Broken bones and concussion are among the injuries police officers have suffered over six days of disorder which has seen hundreds of arrests in the wake of a knife attack in Southport last week which left three girls dead.
Patrick Cairns BEM, the Harrogate-based Chief Executive Officer at The Police Treatment Centres charity, said the situation was taking its toll.
"You've probably seen pictures of officers collapsed against a wall,” said Mr Cairns.
"They've been physically assaulted and that sort of thing stays with you and, perhaps, forever."
"There has been many police officers have come to the fore and cancelled rest days and leave because it's required a massive effort in terms of the numbers.
"Some police officers and police staff members are not terribly good at asking for help.
"They've just got on with it."
The initial unrest was fuelled by misinformation online that the suspect in the Southport knife attacks was an asylum seeker.
The Government has now mobilised nearly 6,000 officers nationally as the police prepares for more possible violent protests by anti-immigrant supporters of far right groups across England.
The first rioter to be sent to prison, Mr Derek Drummond, was today jailed for three years.