Police chiefs have told officers that people should not be punished for driving a reasonable distance to exercise, and that blanket checks were disproportionate, in a bid to quell a row about heavy-handed enforcement of the coronavirus lockdown.
Amid anger at some forces setting up checkpoints and using drones to target people visiting rural beauty spots, the guidance reissued and updated late on Tuesday aims to forge more consistency across 44 forces in England and Wales.
It is issued by the College of Policing, which sets professional standards, and the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), and tells officers both what they can do and what police leaders would prefer them to refrain from doing.
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It sticks to the powers in the emergency law passed last Thursday, and not statements made by senior government figures about what they wanted the public to do. The two had been contradictory and were the source of potential confusion for some officers.
One police chief, whose force had been caught in the eye of the storm caused by forces applying the powers differently, said on Tuesday the new laws had been “unclear”.
The draconian powers were given to police to enforce an unprecedented lockdown closing non-essential shops, banning gatherings of more than two people and restricting when people can be outside their homes.
The guidance stresses officers “police by consent” and that during the pandemic, people must have a reasonable excuse to leave their home to stop the virus spreading and resulting in a spike in fatalities.
Source: UK coronavirus lockdown: police reissued with guidance on enforcement
