"We, not just the police, but the whole community and the council need to be vigilant and not tolerate this sort of behaviour," Mr Cull said yesterday after a weekend when two routine police jobs went violently wrong.
Senior police officials yesterday said the assaults were reminders that being a police officer was sometimes a dangerous job.
But the police association said that criminals were increasingly willing to take police on, aware that officers were tentative because of the repercussions for breaking the tight rules around their behaviour.
Constable Greg Park was taken to hospital after police said he was knocked out by a 21-year-old man during a routine breath-test stop in Northeast Valley on Saturday. Const Alana Kane's wrist was fractured and two other officers were bitten when they were allegedly attacked by two people and a dog during a routine bail check in St Kilda early yesterday.
Four people were arrested in relation to the two incidents. Three, including a 15-year-old youth, were remanded in custody when they appeared in Dunedin courts on serious assault charges yesterday.
The other is to appear on a minor obstruction charge on Friday.
Police Minister Judith Collins said she had spoken to all four officers, who reported they were carrying out routine jobs and had not expected anything to happen.
"It's a reminder to members of the public that police officers put their lives on the line every day they go to work."
There were clearly some people who thought they could react this way, which was why the Government was supporting legislation to make assaulting police and corrections officers an aggravating factor at sentencing, she said.
Dunedin-Clutha area commander Inspector Dave Campbell said officers were trained to make a risk assessment at every job they did, and if checks on addresses or vehicles were clear, they would usually proceed without back-up.
Const Park was working alone on Saturday, but at night up to 1am that was not an unusual practice in North and South Dunedin and was similar to practice elsewhere, Insp Campbell said.
Const Park had a swollen and black eye and a swollen nose and intended to be back at work later this week.
In the second incident, Const Kane and another female officer were paired up to carry out the bail check.
Decisions on who would be paired with whom was based on experience levels, rather than gender, Insp Campbell said.
Const Kane was released from hospital yesterday and she would be back at work on light duties next week.
Acting Southern police district commander Inspector Lane Todd expressed concern about a noticeable increase in attacks on officers doing routine work.
Five officers across the Southern police district had been injured in the course of routine stops or checks in the past 18 months, which might not seem like a big number, but was "a big concern for us" because those things were police officers' daily business, he said.
Police would assess the weekend attacks to see if procedures needed to be changed or improved.
The Police Association said attacks on officers were becoming the norm as the force became too tentative in its frontline work.
President Greg O'Connor said police lacked confidence and were avoiding the use of pre-emptive force for fear of repercussions.
"We basically have to wait to be assaulted before we can do anything ...
"No-one says police should have carte blanche, but they have been walking a very tight rope.
"That rope has got too tight, and needs to be loosened a little."
• A 21-year-old man appeared in Dunedin District Court yesterday charged with injuring Const Park with intent to injure him.
He was remanded in custody to today.
Jaimie Cooper-Siggleko (22) and a 15-year-old youth appeared in the Dunedin Youth Court on an indictably laid joint charge of aggravated assault on Const Kane.
Cooper-Siggleko, who is further charged with resisting police, was remanded in custody, without plea, to February 14.
The youth, also further charged with resisting police, was remanded in custody of Child, Youth and Family to tomorrow.
A woman involved in the same incident is to appear in the Dunedin District Court on Friday on an obstruction charge.
