Government moves to beef up penalties for assaults on police should be extended to address violence in the wider community, a Northland officer says.
Law changes to strengthen penalties for assaulting police officers seem certain after Prime Minister John Key said the Government wasn't going to sit back, while "barbaric" attacks occurred.
One involved a Northland police officer having his face bitten by a man he had stopped to breath test.
The tough stance has been welcomed by Northland Police Association chairman Steve Webber.
"In some cases it will act as a deterrent to assaulting police officers but often these assaults are spur-of-the-moment, lack-of-control acts," Mr Webber said.
"Violence against police is happening more often and it's an indication of how much violence there is in the community."
Mr Webber said until the reasons why society was becoming more violent were studied, a long-term solution could not be developed to reduce violence. He applauded the Prime Minister's action to change laws.
The situation was going to be reassessed, which included looking at whether it should be mandatory for attacks on officers to be an aggravating factor in sentencing, Mr Key said.
At the moment, it is up to the judge's discretion.
"When we see the sort of acts we saw on the weekend I think most New Zealanders were offended," Mr Key said.
"If anyone thinks the Government is going to sit back while police officers' lips are being bitten off and do nothing about it, then they need to think again."
Government officials will use a report from police about increasing acts of violence when they work out ways to curb the problem.
Mr Key said statistics showed there were 412 assaults on police in the 2008-09 year, compared with 216 in 1999-2000.
Off-duty policeman John Connolly was seriously injured after being attacked by a group of youths on Friday, when trying to break up a fight in Tuakau, south of Auckland.
Near Whangarei, a police officer had part of his lip bitten off when he tried to breath test a suspected drink driver, and an Oamaru policeman was knocked to the ground and kicked by a carload of people after the vehicle's driver failed a breath test.
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