Has anyone been stopped by the police and questioned on reason for being out?

[Goatymcgoaty]

The police are very active on monitoring cars doing non essential journeys in my town. A few times a week over the past month they’ve set up a road block on a main road out of the town, and pulled over all cars, asking each one where they are going. Were there this afternoon doing just this.

Is everyone else finding this? What do you tell them if you are popping to your parents for a socially distanced chat in the garden? Or to B&Q (arguably non essential)? It’s putting me off going out at all to be honest. And we haven’t broken any rules. It seems from a lot of recent threads that people are bending the rules a bit though.

This is a rural town in the middle of England. The town itself is not a tourist destination. I can’t think of any reason why we’re being targeted like this.

Everyone is being targeted 🤷🏻‍♀️

I don’t drive but if I was driving to B&Q I’d just say so. It’s allowed, the place is open.

No, not at all. I’ve even driven from London to the midlands and back with no issue (for work). Have seen a significant increase in police presence though.

Personally I wouldn’t feel scared if they did stop me because I haven’t been breaking the “rules”. But having said that, surely drivers can just say they’re going to the supermarket or looking after someone vulnerable or pedestrians can just say they’re on a walk? How will the police otherwise know they’re lying?

No I haven't and I've been out and about all over town and up and down the motorway too (essential worker)

The only person who has checked are security staff at the hospital

There is already a thread about this!!!

Not me, but 2 blokes on scrambler type motorbikes followed a friend of mine. She felt intimidated, so she pulled into a closed service station, so did they.
They wanted to know she was 20 miles from home, she wanted to know who they were and out came their police IDs. She told them she was an essential worker not able to work from home, they told her they'd let her off this time.

Thats mighty big of them

No, I haven’t even seen any police. There are lots of people out where I live, they’d be very busy.

Yes I was asked.

We live on the edge of a country park and at the start of lockdown, there were police cars driving around, looking for gatherings of people, I presume. At the time, there seemed to be confusion about driving to exercise too

They drove slowly past us a few times, but never stopped and I haven’t seen any police during the past few weeks

Yep. On the way back from hospital at the beginning of lockdown. Just after a high street with groups hanging out.

No and I’m out non stop

No. I only go out in the car to go shopping, so there would be shopping bags and a shopping list in the car, or a boot full of shopping.

Yes I've been stopped on my way to work. We all know the rules and hopefully everyone is abiding by them so I don't see any reason to be nervous.

I haven't seen a single police officer. I've been out to cycle/ supermarket shop but there's a very low presence around here

I've not been stopped and asked what I'm upto, but I went for a walk to get some essentials we had run out of last week with dcs and said hello to plenty of police officers on foot in my town centre.
I'm guessing pushing a double pram with shopping bags on the handles was enough for them to know what I was upto?

I’m nervous because I’m not used to the police I suppose. I also don’t understand the point of what they’re doing - surely everyone stopped would just say they are going shopping. Can the police dig further - if Tesco’s is 1 mile but you’re off to Sainsbury’s which is 5 miles, can they challenge you on why you’re not going to the nearest shop? Is it ok for a family to go shopping en route to exercise?

Have been around and about, including to supermarkets further away from home (searching for food items for autistic son) and to B&Q. Never been stopped, never even seen a roadblock.

Yep in first week and not since. The roads are like a normal rush hour now

Someone I know was stopped in his car in SW London and asked where he was going as he was 5 miles from home - this was last Wednesday.

As someone has said, places like B&Q are open so I can only assume it was a 'spot-check' and unreasonable IMO.

No, but I'm always on foot. In fact I've only seen a few police since lockdown. It's quite quiet where I live.
I only go out to the shops and to take my daughter for walks and I have a letter on my phone to cover those as it's part of her care plan.

Not once. I live in the Birmingham area. Not seen any on various routes.

The police on scrambler bikes were really out of order. As a lone female being followed by two men on bikes in a remote/quiet area they were wankers. Men have no idea how it feels to be a female pursued by males. FFS.

I can only assume they have too much time on their hands. Really, what is the point? You've got people who are not leaving the house, you've got others who are observing guidelines but still going out for shopping, to check on vulnerable people etc, and you've got others who are carrying on like nothing has happened. If the police stop the latter, all they'll do is make something up or take an alternative route. I can't imagine anyone going "oh, you've got me bang to rights officer, I will return home and change my ways forthwith".

Can the police dig further - if Tesco’s is 1 mile but you’re off to Sainsbury’s which is 5 miles, can they challenge you on why you’re not going to the nearest shop? Is it ok for a family to go shopping en route to exercise

It's ok for one of you to go into the shop to shop but I would say the rest of the family should stay in the car. But that's not a police thing, that's a supermarket thing, they don't want families in there.

As for the nearest supermarket, they had that rule in Spain. But I don't know if they have the same price range, so if your nearest supermarket is Waitrose, but your budget is Aldi, it's not unreasonable to go to Aldi instead assuming you're not spending the difference in petrol costs. My mum also said that she would argue that it is safer for her to go to a quieter shop where there are no queues and fewer people, than a big supermarket close to home with one hour queues to get in. Which is true in her case - also she has a back problem so she can't stand for very long.

I haven't even seen any police since lockdown started let alone been stopped by one! I live in a small town.

I can only assume they have too much time on their hands

They don't where I live. I live near the trans Pennine trail and it has become so busy these days that social distancing is a problem. We had the mounted police out the other day trying to keep the drug dealers away people apart.