Editorial: Police must be upfront over attacks

Police officers have to put up with a lot while doing their job.

I don't envy our frontline police officers and what they have to put up with in the course of doing their job.

It is a not a career for the faint-hearted, but even so every employee in any line of work deserves to feel some level of safety in the job.

The fact that a senior detective, who was one of two policemen bitten during a violent arrest on Friday, has chosen to speak out, albeit anonymously, says a lot.

The officer was critical of a police media statement of the incident for "glazing over" the bite injuries he and his colleague had received. He said he was upset the truth was not disclosed to media or the public after the attack.

He was backed up by Police Association President Greg O'Connor who said he was "worried" about a national trend where police communications were "reluctant" to include officer assaults in press releases. He suggested this was done to "make New Zealand seem safer". He said that although assaults on police had dropped since 2009, the number of serious assaults had increased in the same period.

However, a national police headquarters spokesman denied there was a policy of withholding such information.

I would be horrified if police communications were doing this as the public needs to know exactly what is happening to our police officers out in the field.

I understand that many suspects don't just meekly hand themselves in and there is often some sort of tussle.

However, police management should be doing everything possible to ensure officers have enough support and protection while doing their job.

That includes being upfront about it.