A 16-YEAR-OLD girl has been arrested after allegedly spitting in a police officer’s face in Katherine yesterday afternoon.

At around 5.45pm, police observed a vehicle allegedly travelling at 80 kilometres in a 50-kilometre speed zone and pulled it over.

Police apprehended the vehicle and submitted the driver, a 56-year-old man, to roadside alcohol and drug tests.

He returned a positive result for the drug test and was placed under arrest, police said.

The girl, a passenger of the car, allegedly became aggressive and threatened to assault police as they were conducting a search of the vehicle.

She then spat in the face of a police officer and was arrested.

The 56-year-old completed a secondary drug analysis at Katherine Watch House, which provided a positive result for methamphetamine and cannabis.

He was issued with a traffic infringement notice for driving with a prohibited drug in his body and exceeding the speed limit. 

The 16-year-old was charged with assaulting police and was bailed to appear in the Katherine Youth Justice Court on July 16.

Detective Senior Sergeant Peter Malley said the assault was abhorrent and would not be tolerated. 

“The risk of contracting COVID-19 is always in the backs of minds of frontline workers but the last thing they expect or deserve is to have this type of disgusting assault committed upon them,” he said.

Police did not say if the incident would attract the newly increased $5495 fine for spitting at workers that the government recently passed in Parliament as part of new COVID-19 measures.