Saturday, June 09, 2007

Habitual spitters forced into headgear

Queensland criminals known to be habitual spitters will be made to wear special headgear to prevent them spitting on police.

Police Minister Judy Spence said a successful 10-week trial ran in 11 police cells last year of the single-use, disposable spit nets which were similar to the garb worn by bee keepers.

From today, the trial has been extended to eight major watch-houses for one year.

Spit net

"Under the guidelines of the trial, the spit nets will only be used on offenders who spit at police or have a history of spitting at police," Ms Spence told state parliament.

"If offenders co-operate with police and behave themselves, they will avoid the wearing of spit nets completely."

Ms Spence said spitting at someone doing their job was repulsive and, unfortunately, on the rise, with 222 recorded incidents of police officers being spat on between October 2005 and October 2006.

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