Society's Child
Humberside has become the first police force to create a dedicated online "portal" where people can submit written tip-offs if they spot gatherings of more than two people.
Other forces including West Midlands, Greater Manchester and Avon and Somerset are urging the public to alert them to breaches using their established online forums rather than 999 or 101.
It has already seen one late-night house party in Coventry broken up by police and eight people "removed" and sent home after a neighbour tipped off West Midlands Police.
Police chiefs, however, also urged snoopers to apply common sense after receiving calls from people demanding officers come and arrest a neighbour for "going on a second run" in a day and another calling for urgent action against a neighbour apparently driving off for the day.
On Friday Martin Hewitt, chair of the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC), said the police action was being taken because "this is a national emergency, it is not a national holiday."
He said officers would adopt a proportionate approach to public tip-offs but welcomed them as a "positive" sign that people were "letting us know" and taking the crisis "seriously."
The NPCC confirmed people had already been fined within the first 24 hours of the new regulations including it is thought a woman taken for a drive with a friend and another spotted in her car by the same police officer on three separate occasions.
The moves on snoopers however, provoked further criticism from civil liberty campaigners following Thursday's deployment of drones to track walkers in the Peak district and road checks in North Yorkshire, Devon and Cornwall.
Silkie Carlo, of Big Brother Watch, warned it was an "ill-advised" use of resources at a critical time. She said: "We don't want to become a nation of informants. Citizen policing is characteristic of authoritarian regimes and doesn't reflect the community spirit most Brits are tackling this crisis."
The Bruges Group warned: "This is not East Germany. We do not want Britain to sleepwalk into becoming a Police State in which we fear our neighbours."
Humberside said it introduced the web portal because of a surge in 101 calls about breaches but urged people to exercise discretion over tip-offs.
"For instance, if a couple and two children are seen in the park, it's highly likely they are all from the same household and are taking the opportunity for their one form of exercise of the day, which under the guidance is allowed," said the force.
"However, if there is a group of ten people of the same age gathered in a car park, it's more likely they are not from the same household. We will not be able to deploy officers to every single report of social gatherings...the information within the report will determine our response."
Nick Adderley, Northamptonshire's chief constable, said the force had been inundated with dozens of 101 calls about breaches and was prioritising tip-offs about gatherings of "five, six or seven or more."
However, he said the force's intelligence unit assessed all information for "patterns of behaviour" or a "consistency" in the way people acted that might merit further investigation.
Besides calls about neighbours going on second runs, the force has received reports of neighbours gathering in their back gardens and he pledged the police response would be "proportionate."
"We won't have police officers crashing through garden fences to check the ID of everyone who is there to see whether they live at the house or whether they should be self-isolating," he added.
Yesterday also saw Britain's first "coronavirus injunction" imposed by a Manchester housing association on an unruly tenant who was throwing noisy parties with 20 guests during the lockdown.
Mosscare St Vincent's association went to court to get the legal order preventing further disruption after receiving complaints from worried neighbours about the parties.
Meanwhile, South Wales Police has teamed up with Neath council to use drones with megaphones to search "hotspot" areas where people are defying the rules and broadcast advice, while Haringey council urged people to report construction workers breaching social distancing rules to the police.
Mr Hewitt denied the police was becoming an "arm of the state," though it was working "extremely closely" with the Government.
He said forces aimed to strike a balance between taking action to prevent the spread of coronavirus and not "damaging" the relationships between police and public.
He confirmed the military could be brought in to bolster police numbers with up to a fifth of officers expected to be off sick or self-isolating in the Government's worst-case coronavirus scenario. They would most likely take up back office roles freeing up officers for the frontline.
To plug the gaps, Dame Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, is writing to all officers who retired in the last five years to ask them to re-join the force or come back as special constables.
It follows Government changes to tax and pension rules to remove financial disincentives.
She is also asking Met officers nearing 30 years' pensionable service, to delay their retirement and stay on.
Reader Comments
Guess which police force had that colour 80 years ago ??
Amazing how many snitches are drooling at the opportunity. The system crashed here yesterday from too many calls.
"this is how democracy dies: to thunderous applause!" (Star Wars quote of the day).
To plug the gaps, Dame Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, is writing to all officers who retired in the last five years to ask them to re-join the force or come back as special constables.So much for so-called social distancing. Are any of these retired plods going to be required to take a coronavirus test? No.
Nearly everyone's already got it or had it. Just had a call in from an old friend last night who's got it. Spoke to one of my workmates last night who's got it, as has her boyfriend. My next door neighbour and his wife have got it. Their son and his family have got it, etc.
The horse has bolted. Can we go back to work and get back to normality now please?
If you think a restaurant, a cafe, a pub, a clothes shop, an electrical store, a more-or-less-anything store or a more-or-less-anything business can stay closed for six months without going under, you must be off your heads.
" Burning down the house to keep warm" don't even do it.
The vast majority of the race, whether savage or civilized, are secretly kind-hearted and shrink from inflicting pain, but in the presence of the aggressive and pitiless minority they don’t dare to assert themselves. Think of it! One kind-hearted creature spies upon another, and sees to it that he loyally helps in iniquities which revolt both of them . Speaking as an expert, I know that ninety-nine out of a hundred of your race were strongly against the killing of witches when that foolishness was first agitated by a handful of pious lunatics in the long ago. And I know that even to-day, after ages of transmitted prejudice and silly teaching, only one person in twenty puts any real heart into the harrying of a witch.The Mysterious Stranger. Free: [Link]
Lawyer: Man killed by officers during SWAT no-knock raid at 4:30am was asleep when police fired
"The constitution is dead" was the last tweet ever sent by 21-year-old Duncan Socrates Lemp. On Thursday morning at 4:30 a.m., a Montgomery County SWAT team killed Lemp during a violent attack on...And yes, psychos snitch everywhere just for the kicks of it.
Groups are completely INCAPABLE of applying common sense! I trust that's why they put this add on pablum was added - for the sake of appearance, not in hope of any substantive change.