Please attribute to Waitematā District Commander Superintendent Naila Hassan:
Police are reminding the community of the need to comply with Alert Level 3 restrictions following a few incidents in Tāmaki Makaurau over the past couple of days.
Since 6am on Sunday until 6pm yesterday evening, Police has processed 83,703 vehicles through the 10 checkpoints spread across North and South Auckland.
358 vehicles have been turned away at the northern checkpoints. 899 have been turned away at the southern checkpoints.
We had a serious incident at the northern checkpoint at the intersection of Coal Hill Road and Mangawhai Road at around 7.15am yesterday morning. A vehicle has pulled up to a checkpoint and the officer has identified the man was a disqualified driver. The officer has noticed that the driver was about to flee so attempted to grab his car keys. The male has driven off with the officer’s arm still in the vehicle.
Fortunately the officer freed himself and avoided serious injury. He is understandably shaken and is being provided with support.
A number of enquiries are already underway to locate the driver, who is known to Police.
In Sandringham, Police staff conducting reassurance patrols in the Wesley area came across a vegetable stall set up on the roadside on Sandringham Road Extension just after midday on Wednesday, 3 March. This market place was not displaying a QR code, the stall operators were not wearing PPE and were not equipped to provide contactless service to customers. Our Police staff engaged with the two men present to remind them of the current Alert Level 3 restrictions and have issued them with a warning.
Police is also aware of a video circulating online showing an interaction between two officers and a woman in Browns Bay who is reported to have cut tape off a playground to allow her children to play on it yesterday afternoon.
Police will be following up with the woman and further action cannot be ruled out in relation to this incident.
Our latest figures indicate that between 6am Sunday 28 February and 6pm Wednesday 3 March 2021, Police received 917 notifications to 105 of possible breaches of COVID-19 alert level 3 restrictions in Auckland.
Overall, our community has been understanding and cooperative around the recent Alert Level 3 restrictions and we want to thank them as we all do our part to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
As part of our graduated response we are focusing on education and are reminding members of the public of the current restrictions in place.
While we are focusing on reminding the public of expectations, there is an option for Police to take enforcement action, particularly in instances where there is deliberate and/or repeated breaches by individuals of these restrictions.
The rest of the country remains at Alert Level 2 and no issues have been reported.
ENDS