Man arrested after assaulting officers who attended report of a house party

A man is in our custody today (Friday) following an incident where one officer was spat at and a second was racially abused yesterday evening.

Officers were called to Hatherley Road in Gloucester at 9.10pm after a resident reported a house party taking place on the road and raised concerns about this.

Two officers attended the location where they found a group of 6 people who had met up.

One officer was spat at and the second had racial abuse aimed at them by a man after speaking to the group to advise that they were breaching social distancing rules.

A 41-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly, assaulting a police officer and racially aggravated public order against a police officer.

Chief Constable Rod Hansen said: "Assaults on officers will not be tolerated and we will continue to take the strongest action possible against anyone who behaves in this way.

"We’re dealing with a pandemic and it is sad to hear that our staff have been faced with this type of unacceptable behaviour.

“I would like to thank all of my officers for the hard work they have provided and will continue to provide in the fight against the pandemic."

Force hate crime lead Chief Inspector Andy Morford added:"Racist abuse and other forms of hate crime against officers, their fellow emergency workers or anyone else will not be tolerated."

The Government passed new legislation last week which means that officers and PCSOs can now take action against anyone who is not complying with social distancing rules and more information can be found here:  http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/350/pdfs/uksi_20200350_en.pdf

Stay home and save lives.