It appears that many of those assaults are perpetrated by people who are under the influence of drugs, alcohol or both.

There’s not many of us who go to work expecting to be verbally or physically assaulted but by all accounts that’s exactly what police officers face every day and night.

In the last month 19 assault charges have come before Orange Local Court, coupled with 26 charges of resisting or hindering police and three of intimidating police.

Surly the majority of us must be scratching our heads and wondering what can be done about this terrible state of affairs.

While drugs and alcohol are obviously contributing factors, there’s also an underlying lack of respect in our society for police and the integral role they play in the everyday law and order we take for granted.

It must be remembered that not all of these assaults occur in pubs and clubs, many of them happen when police are arresting shoplifters, intervening in a domestic altercation or even giving a roadside random breath test.

As the chair of Orange City Council crime community safety committee Jason Hamling said there’s only a small number of people who are responsible for these assaults but they have a big impact on the way police do their job.

If violence against police continues to escalate it’ll make it increasingly difficult to recruit police officers and to keep the ones we have.

We need to teach our children to respect police and the job they do, and ensure there are severe penalties for anyone convicted of assaulting them.

Judges and magistrates need to send a strong message to the community that violence against police will not be tolerated.