However, some risk was unavoidable. "Policing is a very varied job with no two days the same," Mr Aberhart said. "A member of police going to violent offence has a likelihood of assault.
"Police have to make instant decisions about what the best tactical option is for the force coming against them.
"The best weapon is verbal commands but that doesn't always work and sometimes you don't have that opportunity but you work your way through it."
Any training to prepare officers for the field was good, he said.
"The more training the better to equip ourselves but there's only so much time at college and so much time in a working year to allocate time to every staff member that needs it.
"Officers have to be out working as well, so it can be very difficult to get a balance."
Rotorua police area commander Inspector Bruce Horne said staff safety was "an important element". "The nature of the job is we deal with conflict every day," he said.
"There are inherent risks to policing. Our responsibility as police leaders is to prepare our staff as best we can and create a workplace environment that's as safe as we can make it but being cognisant of once you're out of the station there are things we don't have complete control over."
Nationally, there were between 1614-2574 assaults on police each year in the past 10 years. The highest number of assaults was in 2009, while the lowest number was last year.
In the past five years, the number had dropped by more than 26 per cent, while injuries as a result of the assaults fell by almost 30 per cent.
