Officers were in difficult or frightening positions. Some felt they were perhaps not managed properly

Richard Critchley West Yorkshire Police Federation

The federation confirmed that seven officers have so far submitted grievances to a solicitor, who will advise whether or not they have a case.

But it said the matter had not got further than preliminary inquiries.

Federation spokesman Richard Critchley said officers claim the police's 20-year-old guidelines on riot control were out of date for the more sophisticated way in which rioters attacked the police.

He also said the Association of Chief Police Officers had been too slow to learn the lessons from rioting weeks earlier in the Lancashire town of Oldham.

Officers have spoken of rioting techniques in which yobs hurled a barrage of missiles in the air to get police to lift their riot shields before throwing lumps of concrete at their lower legs and feet.

Casualty count

Mr Critchley said the technique was used in Oldham yet senior officers in West Yorkshire Police did not modify their procedures to counter the same threat during the Bradford riot.

Officers who were on the front line believe the high casualty count could have been avoided if lessons had been learned from Oldham and implemented in Bradford.

Mr Critchley said: "Officers were in difficult or frightening positions. Some felt they were perhaps not managed properly.

"What they will have to prove somewhere along the line is that management were neglectful or lacked their duty of care.

Condemnation

"No proceedings have yet been instigated. We have not even had any advice that an officer may be able to establish a case against the Chief (Constable of West Yorkshire)."

The federation has said that starting litigation proceedings is not a direct attack on the West Yorkshire force.

"We are not having a go at the force but individual officers have said that their injuries shouldn't have happened," said Mr Critchley.

Senior police figures have condemned such action.

Assistant Chief Constable Greg Wilkinson, the officer directly responsible for Bradford, said: "We are in an increasingly litigious society, so I am not entirely surprised by this.

Police say up to 1,000 youths were involved

"But I am disappointed. When I joined the police I expected to take knocks."

The Bradford West MP Marsha Singh said that although he felt sympathy for the officers involved in the disturbances, the legal move had serious implications.

He said police officers should be aware when they joined a force of the scenarios they might face.

"If a soldier signs up to join the Army and then is asked to go into conflict, did they not know what they were signing up for?" he said.

"The issue of whether the senior officers and tactics are at fault should not be handled through the courts. I think there are different ways of tackling that.

"Maybe the police federation should be looking at an inquiry to have their complaints investigated."

He added that the government needs to tackle the growing issue of litigation.