Devon and Cornwall police officers used force more often last year than they did before the pandemic, new figures show.

The figures come as a human rights charity says the police “should not be handed new powers”, as it claims current ones put the public at risk of harm.

Home Office figures show the number of incidents in which Devon and Cornwall Police used force rose 43 per cent to 15,700 in the year to March, from 10,974 in 2019-2020 – the year before the coronavirus pandemic.

Of the incidents last year, 1,044 resulted in the subject being injured.

Across England and Wales, 608,000 use of force incidents were recorded in 2021-22, up from 492,000 in 2019-20.

Gavin Hales, a senior associate fellow at the Police Foundation think tank, said last year involved “something of a return to normal crime levels” after a drop in crime over successive lockdowns.

He said the rise could in part be due to the recruitment of new officers, and improved recording of incidents by police forces.

Across the country, 79 per cent of incidents involved restraining the subject – such and handcuffing or forcing them to the ground – with restraint tactics being used 14,743 times in Devon and Cornwall.

Police forces can use multiple tactics in one incident, so this figure may be higher than the total number of incidents where restraint was used.

Men aged 18 to 34 are by far the most likely to be subject to police force nationally – 3,889 (25 per cent of) incidents in Devon and Cornwall involved people who fell into this category.