POLICE officers should not have to interpret the new \u201cambiguous and hazy\u201d lockdown rules after the Government relaxed guidelines for people in England, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.<\/p>\n
In mid-May the Government relaxed its lockdown measures in England and changed its slogan from \u2018Stay at home\u2019 to \u2018Stay alert\u2019. This was followed by new guidelines from the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs\u2019 Council, stating that police officers should only enforce the health protection guidelines, not Government guidance such as social distancing.<\/p>\n
South Yorkshire Police Federation Chairman Steve Kent (pictured) described the new guidance as a \u2018minefield\u2019 that put police officers in an unfair situation.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cSince the lockdown was eased, it\u2019s become even more of a minefield for officers to go out there and apply their judgement to deal with people.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve pointed out that early on in lockdown officers came under fire for the way they interpreted the rules.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIn high-profile media reports, we\u2019re damned if we do and we\u2019re damned if we don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some respects it\u2019s easier now because the rules aren\u2019t as strict, so we as the police don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all know that if someone\u2019s speeding, they\u2019re speeding. They\u2019re going over the speed limit. Or if someone\u2019s got their mobile phone and driving.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut then you\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre we going to go out with a tape measure? No we\u2019re not, and we can\u2019t enforce the two-metre rule anyway. So it\u2019s very difficult for us to go and do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve added that there had been a few cases \u2013 though \u201cthankfully small\u201d \u2013 of the public videoing police officers with their mobile phones, resulting in \u2018trial by social media\u2019.<\/p>\n
Officers had also received lots of reports from the public, including people complaining about too many cars being in car parks.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThere are some people saying we\u2019re not doing enough and then there\u2019s other members of the public saying we\u2019re doing too much.\u201d<\/p>\n