Report people who keep breaking lockdown rules, police chief says
BRITAIN’S MOST senior police officer has said people should ‘shop’ their neighbours if they are repeatedly breaking Covid-19 rules.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said a “small minority” are still failing to follow the regulations.
She said: “The last thing I’m going to say on national radio is everyone should be shopping everybody. I don’t think that.
“What I do think is, if you do have concerns that somebody is persistently not complying with the restrictions, with the regulations, then, yeah, you should talk to us.
“If you feel comfortable to do so, then talk to us.”
Dame Cressida said the force is receiving “hundreds of calls a day” from concerned people, with fines handed out to those who are “completely reckless”, having house parties or keeping a restaurant, pub or cafe open. It came after the Met issued more than 140 fixed penalty notices (FPNs), totalling £39,000, over the weekend in the boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Hackney alone, while 14 seafood hauliers protesting over the Brexit fishing deal at Whitehall were fined on Monday.
Asked by a supermarket worker about people refusing to wear face masks in shops, the commissioner said staff should call police if someone is “very rude or violent”.
But she added: “We can’t patrol and we won’t be patrolling all supermarkets – that will be impossible and not appropriate.
“I think there is a responsibility on stores and store owners and store managers.
“I don’t under-estimate that on occasion it can be a difficult job.”
Dame Cressida said there have been 97 incidents where someone has mentioned or threatened Covid before coughing at an officer, with 48 spitting attacks.
Some 126 people have been charged, with nearly two-thirds receiving a custodial sentence.
The commissioner revealed that three colleagues, none of whom were police officers, have died after contracting Covid-19.
And she said she is “baffled” as to why frontline officers are not closer to the front of the queue to receive the vaccine.