Has anybody been penalised yet?

[Eckhart]

There's pictures and I've seen it for myself. People sitting around in groups in parks with beers. Groups congregating, chatting, blocking pathways and making social distancing nigh on impossible for those of us who are doing our best. The security guy at the supermarket, checking us, one in, one out, but standing in a position where everybody had to literally squeeze past him.

Do you know of anybody who's been fined? Have you seen the police stop anybody (except on the major roads)? Have you seen the police at all?

We can't justify a stronger lockdown if the current rules aren't being enforced.

Not seen any police at all, but then we never do.
There might be some on the motorways?

I definitely think there needs to be a higher police presence. I drive 25 miles too and from work three times a week from Kent into Sussex and have yet to see any police . It will be absolutely awful if we end up not being allowed outside once a day for a walk!! We as a family have really stuck to the rules and will be bloody furious if this small opportunity of normality is taken away because of the selfish,stupid morons!! Seriously it will really compromise Mental Health and Domestic Abuse in many homes!

Nope unfortunately the police didn't break up for punish a couple of households who live in my street despite at least 5 of us reporting (possible more but that the ones I know of)

Last night they had their usual weekly Saturday party, loads of people arriving, music blaring, drinks flowing the party even spilled out into a parking area where they had a fire going

Maybe it’s because most people are sticking to the rules that there are so few fines? Plus police can only enforce the law, not the guidelines. So someone would have to be breaking the law to be fined.

What’s reported in the news is the extreme end of things not the norm.

This idiot in Wales. Twice!
www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/man-issued-two-covid-19-18036367.amp

Before this came in, many forces were so overstretched they couldn't send officers out if you were burgled. Where do people think they're suddenly going to magic up enough officers to Police CV from? Especially as the workforce is even more reduced than normal due to self-isolation.

I suspect police are currently either a) sick or b) tied up with the increase in domestic violence incidents

OP - I think that the vast majority of people are being sensible but unfortunately there is something of a witch-hunt mentality amongst some individuals.

I live in a rural area where it is quite easy to practice social distancing. But there are still FB posts about the number of people out walking their dogs or on their bikes.

Friend who is a nurse was talking to a relative in Co-op car park several metres apart for a couple of minutes. Self-righteous twat said "Shouldn't be gossiping ladies. Go home!" She pointed out to him what she does for a living and that she probably knows slightly more about infection control than he does.

@Deux Plenty of groups sitting around in parks here, and I live just up the road from the police station, so, as usual, I can see that there are police around. They just don't seem to be enforcing anything.

@2010Aussie I don't think it's solitary dog walkers and cyclists who should be policed. It's groups of sunbathers sitting around that are high risk.

If it’s in London, Cressida Dick gave explicit instructions to her force not to be heavy handed.

I don't know anyone who has been penalise but there were a few police cars out and about round my small town yesterday on my walk.

Also if groups of sunbathers are all in the same household that’s less of an issue wrt transmission of virus than if households are mixing.

I haven’t seen any police presence myself, but my local police have announced via their social media channels that they have been out enforcing the rules.

I was stopped by the police friday morning.. while walking 2 dogs and on my way to the chemist. They asked where I was going I said .. then they said you're going home then though right , no I'm going for my daily exercise with my dogs to such and such ... they then asked me if I would be in the chemist if they passed and if I had poo bags.. I felt like I was being interrogated.. on the way back from my walk has stopped to give my dogs water and I saw the same two police officers I swear they followed me 🤣

Rural here, so few police and thinly spread over a large area. We rarely see them. A police car drove past us on a family walk locally and gave us a good look but we were the only ones out for miles around at that point - time chosen deliberately as we are shielding a vulnerable family member - and one DC threw them a comedy grin, so they just carried on by.

My concern is that they do need to enforce the law because, if the Covidiots are allowed to carry on putting themselves and us all at greater risk, then deaths will rise, the NHS and other essential services will buckle under the strain, the lockdown will continue for longer and the restrictions will only increase - all of which we really do not want. Usually I'm very much 'live and let live', that as far as possible people need to be free to make their own choices and mistakes. In the current crisis however, the choices of the selfish and foolish will impact very badly on all of us. We all need to give up some of our personal freedoms for the greater good. That's the best demonstration of 'be kind' I can think of. Many are thinking only of their rights and not enough about their responsibilities.

I think it will go:

1. Enforcement of current law
2. If that does not work, putting into law limits on distance travelled from home and time out allowed for exercise.
3. If that does not work, then a ban on exercise away from home, a curfew and we all have to carry a form when out for any allowed reason, with the army helping the police to enforce this.

We live in a National Park and, although most visitors are very welcome in normal times, we need to see them prevented from travelling here from the surrounding towns and cities during the current crisis. I think this is non essential travel to exercise, puts pressure on our limited services here, and risks virus spread in both directions. As many will have seen on the news, it's been pretty horrendous with hordes of Covidiots descending since this started. We need a change in the law so that this can be enforced because too many people are not doing the decent thing and following the guidelines and pleas to stay local. Police have been vilified by some for trying to enforce the guidelines, especially as it is not in the new law.

I cannot stress enough how much I do not want no. 3 above to happen, especially for all DCs, parents struggling with DCs, everyone struggling with mental health and for dog owners, particularly everyone without gardens or balconies too - but for all of us.

The current law needs to be enforced to keep us all as far away from total lockdown as possible, and in partial lockdown for as short a time as possible.