THE deputy chief constable of Dorset Police has said people will “feel the full force of the law” if they assault or verbally abuse key workers.

There were more than 40 occurrences of assault on police officers and emergency workers in Dorset between March 16 and April 14.

These included being coughed and sneezed at and threatened with physical attack.

And now Dorset Police has launched their #Unacceptable campaign to tackle these kinds of incidents.

DCC David Lewis told the Daily Echo: “We have seen an increasing number of assaults and abuse of key workers and emergency service workers.

“We feel it necessary to get together and launch the unacceptable campaign. We want to educate people as to what’s going on and encourage them to applaud emergency workers.

“We have people who misbehave and we will deal with those robustly. They will face criminal proceedings and feel the full force of the law.”

Mr Lewis said there is a group of people who are not compliant and aren’t supportive.

“Some people don’t like being told to stay at home,” he added.

“Police officers, other emergency workers, care workers, they sign up to protect people, to save lives and it is not acceptable to be vilified. Other than the health impact, it is emotionally really unpleasant. It can have a significant impact.

“The government guidelines are there for one purpose and that is to save lives, so it is really important.”

Martyn Underhill, police and crime commissioner for Dorset, said: “Our police officers, paramedics and other key workers are heroes who are enabling this country to keep going throughout this unprecedented situation.

“I’m sure the vast majority of the Dorset public would agree that assaulting these brave men and women, or deliberately coughing and sneezing over them, is a despicable and cowardly act.

“We will need the help of our key workers more than ever over the coming week- any assault on them is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”

It comes as the government extended the lockdown for “at least” another three weeks, foreign secretary Dominic Raab confirmed at Downing Street’s daily briefing.

The death toll for Dorset remained at 81 over the last 24 hours, however increased by 740 in England, taking the country-wide total to 12,396.