We're like punchbags, says officer after latest assault

People with "more booze, more drugs and more lack of respect for authority" have changed the way police respond to callouts, says a senior Tauranga officer.

Violent attacks have always been an occupational hazard for frontline staff, but "it seems to be happening a lot more lately, where police are being assaulted", Senior Sergeant Darryl Brazier said yesterday.

As a result police, sick of being used as "punchbags", routinely expect to be faced with violent offenders who "don't care what they say and do to police", he said.

Mr Brazier's comments came after an assault on a female Mt Maunganui officer attending a domestic dispute early on Saturday morning.

The officer, in her mid-20s, was kicked and punched by a 23-year-old man, alleged to have been threatening to kill his partner. The officer was saved by her male colleague and others at the address.

She is recuperating at home on rostered time off and is expected to be back at work this week.

It was the second attack on a female officer in Tauranga this year. The other officer was bashed with a wheel rim at an out-of-control party in January.

She spent time in intensive care with skull, nose and shoulder injuries. That matter is understood to be at a pre-trial stage and the officer's name is suppressed.

Mr Brazier said the man at the centre of Saturday's incident was "so aggressive and so out of it, he would have tried to take on anyone" and the scene was "pretty chaotic for a while".

He believed the man was "under the influence of some mind-altering substance apart from alcohol".

The man is due to appear in Tauranga District Court today charged with threatening to kill his partner, injuring his partner with intent to injure, aggravated assault on a police officer and resisting arrest.

Mr Brazier said other charges could follow.