EVERY day two police officers are assaulted in Essex while trying to keep the public safe, new figures have revealed.

A change in the law is expected to increase sentences for criminals when the victim of an assault is someone within the emergency services and on duty rather than a member of the public.

The Police Federation welcomed the change adding officers should not have to consider being assaulted as “part of the job”.

Figures from the Home Office revealed between April 2017 and March 2018, 756 assaults against officers were recorded by Essex Police.

Of those, 211 caused injury.

In just two years the number of assaults without injury have increased more than 40 per cent in Essex.

Essex Police’s assistant chief constable Andy Prophet said: “I’m incredibly proud of the amazing work of the police officers and police staff working across Essex.

“Sadly, at times policing is a difficult and dangerous job.

“Officers and staff, on occasions, are required to put themselves at risk in order to protect the public. There are far too many occasions every day when officers and staff are assaulted while they are trying to do their job.

“Any assault, whether resulting in injury or not, is completely unacceptable. I am clear that anyone responsible for assaulting a member of my staff can expect to be arrested and brought to justice.”

John Apter, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: “This is an issue I feel passionately about and I have long campaigned to have it addressed.

“Any attack on a police officer is unacceptable.

“And while I am glad the Office for National Statistics and the Home Office are improving their data collation regarding assaults on police officers I do not believe that these figures represent anywhere near the true picture of the level of violence our members face on a daily basis.

“Steps have been taken to improve the quality of the data, however there is still work to be done to ensure that all incidents are accurately recorded so a true picture can be obtained. This responsibly also falls to the individual chief constables to make sure that all officers have the confidence to report every incident. It must be a priority as we can only deal with a problem when we know the true scale of it. “