As we enter the second week of lockdown in the UK, enforcement measures are getting stricter, as police are given extra powers to ensure people are limiting the spread of coronavirus. It comes as police have issued a number of fines to people making non-essential journeys and buying non-essential items.
Over the weekend, police in Lancashire sent out 123 fines for various lockdown rule-breaking, and police in Warrington tweeted that they had summonsed six people for offences including: driving out of boredom, returning from parties and multiple people from the same household buying non-essential items.
Derbyshire police have been shaming on social media, even releasing videos of people walking their dogs and stopping during exercise with captions such as ‘going out of your way for an Instagram snap: not essential’ and ‘walking your dog in the peak district: not essential’.
It comes after some convenience stores were also apparently told to stop selling Easter eggs as they are considered non-essential goods. This has since been condemned by the Prime Minister's official spokesperson, who when asked if shops could continue to sell non-essential items said: ‘We have set out which shops can remain open. If a shop is allowed to remain open, then it will of course sell whatever items it has in stock.’
Naturally, all of this has caused a lot of confusion among the public. We’re told we can go for walks each day but then if we stop to take a picture – meters if not miles from anyone else – we’re suddenly breaking the rules? We’re told we should not be buying non-essential items and yet if we pop a chocolate-shaped egg into our bag, we’re met with a fine?
With all of this in mind, we need to ask the question...
What powers do the police have exactly to enforce lockdown?
Well, official rules were published on the government website on March 26, stating the following:
‘To ensure people stay at home and avoid non-essential travel, from today, if members of the public do not comply the police may:
‘Instruct them to go home, leave an area or disperse
‘Ensure parents are taking necessary steps to stop their children breaking these rules
‘Issue a fixed penalty notice of £60, which will be lowered to £30 if paid within 14 days
‘Issue a fixed penalty notice of £120 for second time offenders, doubling on each further repeat offence.’
The website states that anyone who doesn’t pay the fixed penalty notice under the regulations could be taken to court ‘with magistrates able to impose unlimited fines’ and anyone that refuses to comply can be arrested ‘where deemed proportionate and necessary.’
‘In the first instance the police will always apply their common sense and discretion,’ the website statement adds.
It seems then that the behaviour exhibited by the police is completely dependent on their own interpretation of common sense. Which is perhaps why police chiefs are being forced to draw up new guidance to ensure forces don’t overreach. In fact, one former supreme court justice, Lord Sumption, told BBC Radio 4’s World at One that excessive measures from some forces were turning Britain into a ‘police state’
The behaviour of the Derbyshire police is frankly disgraceful
‘The behaviour of the Derbyshire police in trying to shame people in using their undoubted right to take exercise in the country and wrecking beauty spots in the fells so people don’t want to go there is frankly disgraceful,’ he said.
According to the Guardian, the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) and College of Policing are creating guidance to clarify this common sense and remind officers that they cannot stop people from going for a run or a drive, even if politicians have warned people not to.
It’s also expected to say that driving to exercise cannot be banned – even if it is considered ‘unwise’ – and is not covered by the emergency powers put in place. Also, that the law does not restrict people from exercising outside only once a day.
NPCC chair, Martin Hewitt, is understood to have written to police chiefs across England and Wales last weekend to encourage more consistency across forces when enforcing lockdown rules.
It seems then, that until more detailed guidelines are shared with the police and the public the severity of enforcement measures will continue to be something of a postcode lottery.
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