Police release more details about dedicated 'Covid cars' patrolling Cornwall and Devon
They will be in hotspot areas across the two counties
Police insist they are not taking away resources from the frontline as dedicated 'Covid cars' start patrols across Cornwall and Devon.
The patrol units will be in operation on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights in streets across the two counties.
The idea behind this is to engage, explain and encourage residents to comply with the Government's guidance, however, enforcement will be considered via a fixed penalty notice.
Dedicated Covid police cars to patrol streets of Cornwall
"What we have done is we have created a Covid intelligence function, so we can put a little bit of evidence-based policing behind our deployments. We can look at if there are any hotspot areas, areas where we are seeing an increase in the spread of the virus and we can deploy cars to those areas."
Inspector Robin Loveridge, Devon and Cornwall Police
The vehicles will patrol hotspot areas and locations which see a spread in the virus but the force says they will not specifically be targeting the border, where is swaps from Tier 1 in Cornwall to Tier 2 in Devon.
It follows concerns that punters may travel into the Duchy to go to pub.
"We will go to where the demand is, so if we are getting calls within Cornwall, a stone's throw from Plymouth for example, we can dispatch cars to see what it is like, no we are not patrolling the border, we will carry on responding to where we can see the demand coming in."
Inspector Robin Loveridge, Devon and Cornwall Police
The force says it has been able to implement these patrols due to the funding it received from the Government's 'Covid Surge Fund' earlier this year.
Funding of these units will remain in place until the end of March, but will remain under constant review to reflect the Government's latest guidance.
"We are not taking resources away from the frontline, I know there has been some concern that we are prioritising Covid-related logs above and beyond our normal related business, but that is not the case.
"The officers in fact use plain cars, they are not marked, in the majority of cases they are plain cars. The officers are on overtime, coming in on rest days or overtime, using this specific pot of funding, so we are not taking away from our core day-to-day business."
Inspector Robin Loveridge, Devon and Cornwall Police
It comes as Devon and Cornwall Police spoke to more than 2,000 people about breaking Covid rules during the second national lockdown.
172 fines were dished out to people who breached the coronavirus legislation.
The figures, recorded between November 5th and December 1st, show 95 related to indoor gatherings in breach of restrictions - with 563 of all Covid related calls about illegal gatherings.
Devon and Cornwall Police speak to over 2,000 people for breaking Covid rules
"In Devon and Cornwall we've had calls around illegal gatherings, whether that be in people's homes or public spaces, we've had calls about second home owners travelling into the area when they shouldn't have been, about businesses not operating in the correct way or adhering to Covid guidelines."
Inspector Robin Loveridge, Devon and Cornwall Police