More than 40 police officers have been assaulted in the line of duty over the past year.

Chief Constable Russ Foster said it not acceptable to view such attacks as just ‘part of the job’.

He made the comments as he welcomed the jury’s guilty verdict in the trial of James Doherty who shouted repeatedly at a dog to bite a female police sergeant as he resisted arrest.

The Chief Constable described that attack as ‘abhorrent’.

He said: ‘All too frequently, police officers across the Isle of Man are subject to threats, abuse, intimidation and assault.

‘Whilst the severity of such attacks may vary, the impact upon the individual does not. It is never acceptable to assume that assaults upon police officers are “part of the job”.

‘The impact of an assault on a police officer is not always just physical, but often psychological as well. Morale is adversely affected when officers see their friends and colleagues being assaulted and abused. 

‘The public call upon the police to help them when they are most in need. We have a duty to protect the public from violent individuals, but we also have a duty as a society to protect police officers from being assaulted too.’

He said that in the last financial year across the island, there were 41 assaults on police officers and 15 offences of resisting arrest.

The Chief Constable said: ‘These offences vary in their scale and impact, but each and every assault has an impact on the individual and upon policing.

‘Ultimately, it should be remembered that police officers are people; they are fathers, mothers, sons and daughters.

‘The impact of an assault on a police officer is not just upon the individual.

‘Each time a police officer is assaulted there is the potential for absence from work or restrictions in their ability to perform their duty. These absences and restrictions inhibit the ability of the Constabulary to deliver frontline policing.’