A female Australian protective services officer has been caught on video viciously slapping a child after he spat in her face.
Video shot by an observer shows two Victorian PSOs having difficulty restraining a boy who is described as being 11 years of age, before he turns and spits at the female officer.
Later, Victoria Police's top cop responded saying he was 'comfortable' with the officer's reaction and that the boy could be charged with assault.
He also disputed that the right word to use is 'slapped'.
A female Australian protective services officer has been caught on video viciously slapping a child after he spat in her face
As well as spitting it is understood the child 'repeatedly used a 'racist slur', 3AW reported.
The video was filmed at Noble Park train station in Melbourne's south-east on Australia Day.
Shane Patton, Victoria Police's chief commissioner said the PSOs were called to the station where the boy was 'arrested as a suspect'.
He would not provide further details of what led up to the boy being restrained.
Mr Patton defended the Victoria Police employee and disputed that she even slapped the boy.
'You called it a slap, I could call it a redirection strike,' he told 3AW's Neil Mitchell.
Victoria Police's top cop, Shane Patton, described the slap as 'a redirection strike'. He said he was 'comfortable' with the officer's reaction and that the boy could be charged with assault
'I can't put myself in her position of going 'I need to stop being spat on'.
'There's no doubt that she's been struck, its redirected his face away from her, it's stopped any further threat.'
Chief commissioner Patton said the officer shown striking the boy submitted 'a use of force form' instead of trying to hide her reaction.
'At this stage we're comfortable with what's been done in relation to that matter.'
Chief commissioner Patton added it was 'absolutely' possible the boy could be charged with assault for spitting on the officer.
Chief commissioner Patton said the PSOs were called to the station where the boy was 'arrested as a suspect'
What is a protective services officer?
Protective Services Officers (PSOs for short) perform some of the functions of police officers in Victoria but they are different.
For a start, their patches are train stations not police stations.
PSOs are located at all 212 metro Melbourne stations and four regional stations (Bendigo, Traralgon, Ballarat and Geelong).
PSO's tasks include:
monitoring and patrolling peak hour train servicesbuilding trust in the safety of the station and public transport system through rapport with commuters and the surrounding communityworking at major events and their surroundsPSOs train for 12 weeks at the Victoria Police Academy, then undergo three months of mentoring before deployment at suburban train station.
Police officers undergo 31 weeks of full-time, structured training.
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