Police ‘had nothing in writing’ over the enforcement of lockdown rules
MPs hear why officers’ response is inconsistent
ATTEMPTS FROM police officers to enforce draconian coronavirus lockdown rules were based on “stark” messages from politicians rather than new legislation, MPs have been told.
Simon Kempton, from the Police Federation, told the Home Affairs Select Committee that normally officers would be trained before new legislation came into force.
But lockdown powers under the Health Protection (Coronavirus) Regulations and the Coronavirus Act were brought in so quickly that this was not possible.
Addressing the committee yesterday, Mr Kempton said it was important to have a top-down approach on guidance for the police so that there is consistency across the UK.
He said: “We had a period of time, several days, where actually our only briefing was the very clear, very stark guidance that Ministers and other Government officials were giving to the public.
“We didn’t at that time have anything in writing, and that might have led to some of the inconsistencies in approach.”
It came as West Yorkshire Police Chief Constable John Robins revealed the number of people stopped and fines issued since the lockdown was announced.
Chief Con Robins told the Committee that since the lockdown powers came into force, his officers had spoken to 1,200 people and issued 20 fines.
North Yorkshire Police has issued 11 fines since Thursday, it said, while Chief Constable Peter
Goodman for Derbyshire Police, which was criticised for its tactics on social media in telling people to stay away from the Peak District, said they had issued 30 fixed penalty notices in total, half of which were handed out over the past weekend.
Pleasant weather in some parts of the country meant that members of the public flouted Government advice by sunbathing, despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson urging the country “not to do so” in a video message posted on his Twitter account last week.
Mr Kempton added that the police’s relationship with the public should not be sacrificed amid the outbreak. He said: “At the minute we’re in the middle of this pandemic, and it’s scary and it’s unprecedented but it’s going to end.
“And when it ends the public are going to emerge and it’s going to be a very different world, they will have lost their jobs, their businesses. And they’re going to need protecting by the police at that point.
“We can best protect them, not just by having the right equipment, but by maintaining that relationship. I’m really proud of the relationship that we’ve got with the public.
“What we need to do is get that balance – protecting the NHS while protecting that relationship with the public.” Mr Kempton added that a minority of people still did not want to comply with the measures set out by the Government.
He told the committee: “The vast majority of the public get it, they understand why this is so important and it’s inconvenient
and would rather it wasn’t the case, but they get it and they want to comply, they want to help, they want to do their bit.
“But there are still a minority of members of the public who simply do not wish to comply with the restrictions.
“And we saw over the weekend with the nice weather, some of my colleagues having a monumental task, one or two officers to empty a park with hundreds of people in it.”
Sunbathing is banned under coronavirus-tackling measures on the basis that it is “not essential”, Downing Street said, but it is up to police to use “discretion” in enforcing the rules.