WILTSHIRE Police officers were assaulted on average more than once a day in the last year, the Chief Constable has revealed.

There were about 296 assaults on Wiltshire Police officers and staff last year, which Chief Constable Kier Pritchard said were "significant numbers at more than one a day".

The assaults include abuse, spitting and non-injury attacks including pushing an officer.

And the number of assaults on officers resulting in injury have also risen steeply, almost doubling in the past year, from 55 in 2016/17 to 103 in 2017/18.

"I'm speaking to officers and staff almost on a daily basis, who have suffered that sort of abuse," CC Pritchard said. "I have never known a period like it".

He said the force has investigated "all sorts of reasons" to explain the increase, including the overall rise in violence in the country and cuts to frontline staff, but no one factor is the obvious cause.

"They [officers] are putting themselves in danger," he added. "That shouldn't come as a reason for them to be the societal punch-bag."

CC Pritchard said speaking to officers who have been victims of assault is "the least [he] can do".

He said officers can take advantage of the force's welfare system, and should feel comfortable asking for help in coming to terms with being assaulted.

"[Speaking to them] gives me a context of what frontline staff are facing every day," CC Pritchard said, and that this impacted the training given to officers.

A seven-point assault plan supporting officers and staff abused on duty was introduced by CC Pritchard earlier this year, and more preventative steps are now being taken.

In the past 12 months, officers were spat at 49 times, almost once a week: "Each member of staff I speak to will say, 'it was horrific, I would rather be punched because being spat at is degrading'."

The force is about to start training frontline staff to use spit guards, protecting them from this kind of abuse and the diseases associated with it.

Wiltshire Police will also be introducing more Tasers to officers who volunteer to carry them.

"Even just producing a Taser in a confrontational situation on its own with a warning can be enough to de-escalate a situation," CC Pritchard said.

"To take out your aggression, hostility and venom on a a member of the police force is totally unacceptable. Until we can start to collectively change mindsets we won't see any impact. I want all of us to come together to say, 'this isn't acceptable'."