Coronavirus: People ‘fed up’ of lockdown and trying to get around it, says police chief

‘We have to make sure people are keeping apart, isolating and staying at home,’ says senior officer

People are “fed up” with coronavirus lockdown restrictions and are increasingly trying to look for ways to avoid them, according to a senior police officer.

Paul Netherton, Deputy Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police, said he thought compliance with England’s rules had fallen.

He told BBC Breakfast on Monday: “What's happening is people are beginning to flout the rules, they are beginning to think, 'How can I get away with the rules?'

”I think people are beginning to get fed up with it. I can understand that but we have to be firm, we have to save lives, we have to make sure people are keeping apart, isolating and staying at home.”

The topic of lockdown and how police enforce it has become fraught in some areas. Det Ch Con Netherton was speaking a day after officers in Dorset accused protesters of “stage-managing” the arrest of a woman who had been sitting on a bench at the seafront.

A group of activists filmed the encounter and refused to give their details, Dorset Police said. The footage was later shared widely online as an example of overzealous officers cracking down on people suspected of breaking the rules.

However, another senior police figure said on Monday he disagreed with Det Ch Con’s Netherton’s assessment of compliance with rules. “In the main, when police are engaging with the public, the public are very compliant and are following guidance,” Hardyal Dhindsa, Derbyshire’s elected police and crime commissioner, told Breakfast.

Nonetheless, the lockdown may have to be tightened further because many more people are out and about compared to March, Mr Dhindsa said. He added: “This lockdown is not the same as the lockdown that happened in March.

"If you look at traffic on our roads it's still quite high, because people are still going to work. The activity on your roads and in our spaces is much more than the lockdown we had in March."

In a separate interview, Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccine rollout minister, would not be drawn on whether rules would get stricter.

Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme whether the current lockdown was sufficient, he said: “We don't want to use tougher measures, the lockdown is tough, schools are shut, but it is important to remember this virus loves social interactions.

“We're reviewing all the restrictions, but these are pretty tough at the moment. I am worried about supermarkets and people actually wearing masks and following the one-way system, and making sure when it's at capacity they wait outside the supermarket.”