MORE than 85 police officers were injured in North Yorkshire last year, being punched, spat at, head butted, kicked, bitten and hit with a chair leg.

Figures released by North Yorkshire Police showed 53 people were charged with assaulting officers between April 1 2015 and March 31 2016, 48 of whom were successfully prosecuted at court.

Twenty-six of the injured officers were female, and were assaulted either in public places, domestic dwellings or in custody suites.

Their assaults included being punched, slapped, kicked, elbowed, head-butted, having hands trapped in doors, hit in the head with a chair leg, spat at in the eyes and mouth, and having hot and cold drinks thrown in their faces.

The injuries sustained by male officers also included several bites from suspects in custody and in public, having an arm trapped in a window by a suspect, being punched by a driver pulled over at the roadside, and being “punched in the mouth by member of the public driving at people in electric wheelchair”.

Deputy Chief Constable Tim Madgwick spoke out this week after a female police officer was punched several times in the face while breaking up a fight at Pop World in York, and said he was disgusted by the assault of police officers.

He said: “It’s appalling that officers can be subjected to physical assaults whilst carrying out their job. The role of a police officer is to protect our local communities and to promote confidence – but this should not come at the cost of their own personal safety.

“When you become a police officer you know that there will be challenging situations that you will deal with as part of your daily job – but all too often officers are becoming victims of assaults themselves and it is not acceptable.”

Last week, The Press also reported on the sentencing of Adam Luke Fox, who spat at a female police officer and called her a “****ing monkey”, after she took him to York Hospital’s A&E for treatment to a stab wound following an altercation at a house party.

Fox, who had previously been given a supervision order for assaulting a police officer just a year previously, was given a four-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

Mike Stubbs, chair of the North Yorkshire Police Federation, said demand on police had never been greater, but the danger for officers was exacerbated by funding cuts demanded by central government.

He said: “Too often now, there are reports of PCSOs being assaulted, which has to call into question whether they are being sent to incidents which should really be dealt with by police officers. Police officers are attending incidents single-crewed which arguably require greater resources.

“In other areas of Yorkshire, MPs are now starting to take on board the message about the dangers that our members face, and it is time for the MPs who represent North Yorkshire to do the same. A comparatively safe county needs a properly-funded police service to stay safe – that message needs to reach Westminster.”