Officer Should Not Have To Interpret “Hazy” Lockdown Guidelines

POLICE officers should not have to interpret the new “ambiguous and hazy” lockdown rules after the Government relaxed guidelines for people in England, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

In mid-May the Government relaxed its lockdown measures in England and changed its slogan from ‘Stay at home’ to ‘Stay alert’. This was followed by new guidelines from the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs’ Council, stating that police officers should only enforce the health protection guidelines, not Government guidance such as social distancing.

South Yorkshire Police Federation Chairman Steve Kent (pictured) described the new guidance as a ‘minefield’ that put police officers in an unfair situation.

He said: “Since the lockdown was eased, it’s become even more of a minefield for officers to go out there and apply their judgement to deal with people.

“I don’t think it’s fair that the officers themselves are the ones who have to be almost judge and jury in this when the rules are as ambiguous and hazy as they are.”

Steve pointed out that early on in lockdown officers came under fire for the way they interpreted the rules.

He said: “In high-profile media reports, we’re damned if we do and we’re damned if we don’t.

“In some respects it’s easier now because the rules aren’t as strict, so we as the police don’t have to come down as harshly on people. But it makes everything such a grey area, and the difficulty is for our cops to have to interpret that.

“We all know that if someone’s speeding, they’re speeding. They’re going over the speed limit. Or if someone’s got their mobile phone and driving.

“But then you’ve got situations where you might have two groups of people in the park meeting which might be lawful, whereas another group of people might not be lawful.

“Are we going to go out with a tape measure? No we’re not, and we can’t enforce the two-metre rule anyway. So it’s very difficult for us to go and do that.”

Steve added that there had been a few cases – though “thankfully small” – of the public videoing police officers with their mobile phones, resulting in ‘trial by social media’.

Officers had also received lots of reports from the public, including people complaining about too many cars being in car parks.

He said: “There are some people saying we’re not doing enough and then there’s other members of the public saying we’re doing too much.”