massive 1200 percent rise in 1998.

A shortage of Police and a reliance on rookie recruits was blamed for the upsurge which also affected Eastern Division which had a 50 percent rise and Western Division which had a 40 percent rise.

The freshly-released Core Functions review said: "There is a shortage of Police officers on the street. This leads to single officer response calls for service or attending to incidents and this is more likely to lead to resistance or attacks on officers.

"There is a much higher number of inexperienced Police Officers on the street today, more so than ever before. They are likely to be less tactful, less confident, and less likely to take initial control of a situation.

Police Association Chairman Sgt. Michael Jackman said: "People don't have as much respect for the police anymore.

"They might be more likely to resist arrest. They take more liberties with a junior officer than a senior officer.

"And junior officers have lack of experience on how to deal with the public.'' Police face violence Former Assistant Commissioner and PLP backbencher Wayne Perinchief blamed the upsurge on a lack of respect for police in the community.

He said: "Generally younger people have disrepect for authority.'' He added: "New recruits aren't trained to deal with situations. "At one time police officers were hired for size and they were adept at handling themselves well in dealing with confrontational situations. Now they are hired for brain rather than brawn but they are less respected.'' "Violence in the community has risen. There's more drug use which causes a heightened level of excitability. Drug skirmishes are endemic across the island.

"In some instances the victims are involved in drugs, in some cases they are simply killed as a result of person using drugs. If someone is high on crack or cocaine they get terribly agitated.'' But he added: "What is now regarded as an assault on a police officer used to be regarded as run of the mill -- it came with the job.

"If someone ripped the buttons off your coat you would arrest them but it wasn't seen as an assault.'' Both Mr. Perinchief and Sgt. Jackman welcomed the report and said it addressed the problems affecting the force.