The injured policeman retires after 23 years

A police officer who suffered life-changing injuries while protecting the public in 2018 has decided to retire after 23 years of service.

Police officer Claire Bond suffered a broken leg and kneecap crushed by a drug dealer’s car in Staffordbut she managed to punch him in the face to prevent him from crashing into runners taking part in a city 10km race.

She returned to Staffordshire Police 19 months later but said: “I’ve put so much energy into it I’m a bit exhausted.”

Ms Bond said that when she retires on Thursday she hopes to set up a charity that will work with injured police officers and their families.

She said: “I always thought I would live to be 30 and retire just before my 60th birthday.”

But she remembered the words of former police chief Jane Sawyers, who told her: “You don’t have to be 30 to be a good cop, you just have to give it your all.”

She said it made her realize that she had “dedicated a good 23 years to the police”.

Now she said: “Maybe it’s time to focus on my family because they have supported me all along.”

Ms Bond said that when she was injured she was determined that her police career would not end there and worked as hard as she could to get back to work as quickly as possible.

“I remember thinking that if for some reason I didn’t want to be a police officer anymore, that would be my decision and not someone else deciding for me,” she said.

She added that she wanted people to be proud of her, but looking back, she thought, “I don’t know who I was trying to prove it to, because people around me said you didn’t have to work so hard.”

Facing further surgeries, including a knee replacement, she said, “I made the decision that I wasn’t physically well enough to become a police officer.”

As soon as he retires, he plans to go on holiday to Gran Canaria with a group of friends, but then he wants to start a charity called Wounded Blue Line.

He hopes to use his own experiences to create connections between injured officers, their families and police.

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