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 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.
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.”
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