Lockdown becoming 'unpolicable' across East Yorkshire and the East Riding
That's the view of Humberside's Police and Crime Commissioner
The coronavirus lockdown is becoming “almost unpolicable” since its easing was announced, the Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner has said.
Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner Keith Hunter told the Police and Crime Panel less people were obeying coronavirus restrictions after easing announcement sent the signal life was returning to normal.
The commissioner added it would be “unreasonable” to expect the force to police the whole population going forward and that it “won’t happen”.
Mr Hunter’s comments come as force Chief Constable Lee Freeman told the panel today (Wednesday, March 17) that 555 fines had been issued for lockdown breaches so far this year.
The figure for this year is almost double the roughly 300 fines issued from the start of the first national shutdown in March 2020 to the end of that year.
The fixed penalty notices typically carry fines of between £100 and £200 but can be as high as £10,000 in the most serious cases.
A total of 21 were issued in October, 102 in November, 65 in December, 238 in January, 282 in February and 35 so far this month.
Mr Hunter’s comments followed those of Newland Park Residents Association member Sue Whittaker about groups of students gathering once they return to the University of Hull.
She said there were “serious concerns” that students would gather in large groups without masks, putting residents nearby at risk.
The commissioner said: “Lockdown’s becoming almost unpolicable since restrictions started to ease, the College of Policing has said it is becoming unpolicable.
“We’re still in lockdown now and I’ve never seen the roads as busy.
“I have sympathy with the force as it tries to interpret the laws and regulations around this and how those fit together.
“The signal has been put out there that things are going back to normal.
“I understand the reason for doing that but the reality is that expecting the police to police the whole population is unreasonable and it won’t happen.
“Doing that would take us away from policing everything else.”
Chief Constable Freeman said officers began issuing more tickets to try and crackdown on rule breaches in parts of Hull where infections have spiked since the start of 2021.
He added the force had received a total of 11,633 reports of coronavirus breaches but only had the resources to respond to 44 per cent of them.
The chief constable said: “At first we took a common sense approach and tried to engage with and encourage the public rather than just going after people.
“But as we got into January and February when it got to the point where we’ve seen some of the highest infection rates in the country we quickly moved to start issuing tickets.”
Separately, Mr Hunter said some of the language in the Policing Bill around protesting was “woolly” after Hull Cllr Haroldo Herrara Richmond said it would put pressure on the force.
The Home Office stated the bill, which passed its second reading in Parliament yesterday, was needed to crack down on protests that were not violent or disorderly but “highly disruptive”.
Critics have claimed provisions which make demonstrators liable for fines or up to 10 years in prison if their protest causes “serious annoyance” without a reasonable excuse threaten free assembly.
Mr Hunter said the force was going to take more of a public health approach to domestic violence, the first to be looked at with plans to expand to others.
The panel heard overall crime had fallen in Humberside by 11.3 per cent from March 2020 to this month.
Burglaries fell by 28.6 per cent and sexual offences by 9.1 per cent.
The chief constable also said deployments to mental health related incidents numbered 740 between May and October, down from 1,023 the previous year.
The officer said the fall came as the force felt they were not the proper agency to respond to people having mental health issues in public places.