Thugs who commit “Covid assaults” such as spitting at police should always be held in custody until appearing in court, frontline officers demand.
The Scottish Police Federation want a crackdown on the minority of offenders trying to inflict “misery” on the public.
It follows recent figures showing more than 100 crimes where officers or staff were victims of offences in the first three weeks of lockdown in Scotland.
Officers have been spat or deliberately coughed on by people who could have the potentially lethal coronavirus.
Calum Steele, chief of the Scottish Police Federation, said: “These kind of horrific crimes - spitting in someone’s face, in their mouth or in their direction, in a deliberate attempt to either infect them with a potentially deadly virus or to cause them such alarm as to result in mental anguish for a significant period of time - are reprehensible.
“Anyone who argues that such crime should not result in an appearance at the bench at the earliest opportunity is frankly doing a disservice to the communities of Scotland.”
Steele raised concern in a BBC Radio Scotland interview after the federation lodged their demand at Holyrood. MSPs are reviewing police emergency powers in the pandemic.
Steele accepted courts are already experiencing big delays because of lockdown, but he insisted custody suites are the “safest” place for an alleged offender who might have the virus.
