Police issue almost 1,000 penalty notices over Covid regulations

Appearing before the Northern Ireland Policing Board, Mr Byrne said the policing of coronavirus restriction was a “matter of almost daily concern and scrutiny”.

The matter of the moment seems to be the policing of the wearing of face masks. I think it’s important to recognise that from what we see from both the retail sector and from Translink, there’s about 90% compliance with the restrictions and desire for people to behave in that social-distanced space in which face masks is a part,” he said.

“We don’t necessarily see this as a place for policing to be interrupting people’s lives. We have an ‘e’s approach’ and on occasions the three e’s – encourage, explain, should be sufficient (to avoid enforcing) if officers come across people not wearing a face mask and obviously on occasions there will be legitimate reasons, medical reason etc why people won’t.

“I know it’s a live issue but actually we’re here to follow the health regulations and direction set in that context rather than turn it into a police enforcement issue.”

He added that officers have issued nearly 1,000 penalty notices, and over the weekend visited more than 350 licensed premises.

“The thing we have zoomed in on in the last few weeks, following the medical evidence, house parties in terms of the enforcement piece,” he said.

Simon Byrne said engagement between police and the Stormont Executive over coronavirus regulations, has been “a bit like the river outside the window, and the tide that ebbs and flows”.

“Early on we struggled for meaningful engagement, and Alan (Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd) and I, had to make the case about being at the table and being able to offer a view,” he said.

He added: “We have also got an eye on the long-term consequences for trust and confidence with policing and how hard we tried to get the style right. Eventually there’ll be commentary about whether we’ve been spot-on and I suppose in other cases where we could have done things differently.

“The consistency piece is something we tried hard to get right from the early days… clearly every circumstance is slightly different so you can’t always apply one-size-fits-all policy.”