EVERY police officer in the county should be protected with a spit guard, a federation chairman has claimed, after an officer was spat at in the face.

Officers from the operational support group tweeted that a colleague was receiving treatment at Basildon A&E after a prisoner spat at him.

They wrote on Thursday: “Currently at Basildon A&E with a colleague following a prisoner spitting in his mouth.

“How is this acceptable?

“It’s not in the job description.

“Officer is fine and suitable medical advice/monitoring in place.

“Bloods have been taken following trip to A&E. Risk is low but still present.”

Steve Taylor, chairman of the Essex Police Federation, said spit guards are important pieces of personal protective equipment and should be considered in the same way as limb restraints or handcuffs.

He said: “We see a reasonable foreseeable harm to our colleagues, to our members – namely being spat at and the horrendous risk that that can carry, by which I’m alluding to someone with Hepatitis C or, God forbid, HIV.

“Those contagious diseases can, in certain circumstances, be transmitted through bodily fluid and in the very worst cases, if spit gets into the face, gets into the eyes, the nose or the mouth, there is a risk that those contagions can be passed on.

“There is also the physical risk.

“If you spit at me, my only recourse is to use on you a not insubstantial amount of force to prevent you spitting at me again.

“That then attracts a risk for the public – a risk of injury and a risk of complaint. Those matters are addressed if the officer has access to a spit guard.

“I equate spit guards to limb restraints and handcuffs, even, which are on the belt of every officer, available to every officer who’s in contact with the public and who might be required to arrest and restrain someone.”

He said that he hoped to persuade chief constable Stephen Kavanagh to equip every officer with a spit guard. Last week, Essex Police announced more than double the number of officers trained to use Tasers to tackle violent crime. The force will train 92 more officers, including 23 dog handlers, to start using the devices, with a further 41 due to follow after a review.