Drugs and alcohol are being blamed for an increasing number of assaults on Dunedin police officers.
There have been 15 assaults on officers in the city in the past six months - the most recent on Sunday night when an officer attending a domestic incident in Russell St allegedly was bitten.
Acting Senior Sergeant Chris McLellan, of Dunedin, said it was the fifth assault on city police officers in three days.
In Sunday's incident, an officer was bitten on the leg by a 35-year-old woman about 8pm, he said.
The bite broke the skin, so the officer was taken to Dunedin Hospital for treatment and tetanus shots, he said.
The woman was charged with obstruction, resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer.
Police officers were on Saturday morning kicked, bitten and spat at by a Dunedin couple who were wandering around the Forsyth Barr Stadium construction site and shifting traffic cones in the area, he said.
The man and woman, both unemployed, were charged with being unlawfully on a property, disorderly behaviour, resisting arrest and assaulting police.
A Dunedin 15-year-old was referred to Youth Aid after he took a swing at a dog-handler on Friday morning.
Emergency response manager Inspector Alastair Dickie, of Dunedin, said the incidents were the latest of 15 assaults on police in Dunedin during the past six months which had led to charges.
"These range from bites, kicks, punches, injuries during struggles and spitting, with a range of injuries sustained, including broken bones, sprains and bruising.
"There seem to be increasing numbers of angry people out there - many affected by alcohol and drugs.
"Domestic violence is one common scenario - where the offender is already wound up, police arrive and become the target - as is street violence, where someone has lost the plot on their angry pills and resist police when they are called to restore order."
Insp Dickie said often the bad behaviour did not stop there.
"Once we provide them with accommodation to keep themselves and others safe, some proceed to show their gratitude by spreading a range of human waste, such as urine, faeces, saliva, and blood around the cells or spit their germs - including hepatitis C - at our staff."
Insp Dickie said staff had a range of protection available, but there were always going to be varying degrees of risk to them as they went about their day-to-day duties.
