Coronavirus: NSW Police Commissioner admits his officers may have been confrontational during park blitz
NSW’s Police Commissioner admits officers may have been confrontational during social distancing blitz in parks.
NSW Police Commissioner Michael Fuller has conceded his officers may have been overly confrontational in their policing of social distancing measures in parts of Sydney on Tuesday.
Footage emerged showing police driving on parkland and individually stopping alongside sunbathers and others abiding by social distancing edicts in Rushcutters Bay Park, in Sydney’s east.
They were ordered to go home because they were idle in the park and not exercising or outside for an essential purpose, such as food shopping.
“I’ve seen the vision myself, I’ve thought a lot about it — on one hand, could they have got out of the car and achieved the same thing in a less aggressive way? Yes they could. On the other hand, there’s (hundreds) of parks we’ve got to get to at the same time,” he said on Wednesday morning.
“That was probably a bit disappointing and confronting.”
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian defended the actions of the police and said the community would need to adjust to this new way of living.
Ms Berejiklian has resisted using the term “lockdown” to describe the conditions around which community members can leave their homes.
“I think yesterday was a huge shock for everybody, for the new way of living,” she said.
“Some people were asked to change their behaviour — and that’s not intended for anyone to feel uncomfortable. Everyone’s intention might be good, but if unintentionally there’s too many people in an area it could spread the virus,” she said.
Mr Fuller said his wife and children went to a park yesterday with the family dog, but they did not stay for long. “They kicked the ball around for half an hour; they came home. They didn’t sit around,” he said.
The footage of NSW police officers raiding parks, threatening to fine people who are otherwise obeying social-distancing laws and ordering them to return home, marked a major escalation of draconian COVID-19 protocols that go beyond the intention of the federal government.
Having botched the handling of the cruise ship Ruby Princess, a fiasco that unleashed more than 200 confirmed cases of coronavirus into the community, the NSW Premier and her police commissioner on Tuesday initiated a crackdown on people in public spaces.
Commissioner Fuller said the state was “absolutely, absolutely” in a state of lockdown as he outlined the stringent circumstances permitting members of the community to leave their homes.
Asked on Tuesday night if the enforcement would be toughened further, he told the Seven network: “We’re prepared … I’d much rather work with the community.”
The heavy-handed approach has stunned federal officials and goes beyond the conditions placed on residents in other states; it also runs counter to the spirit of the national cabinet position announced by Scott Morrison on Sunday.
The Prime Minister issued “strong advice” that people should only leave their home to shop for essentials; for medical care or compassionate needs; to exercise in compliance with the new two-person rules; and to go to work or school if you cannot work or learn remotely.
Federal Liberal MP Jason Falinski said he was uncomfortable with how the shutdown regulations were being policed in NSW and would complain to the Berejiklian government if these police actions persisted. “This is a major infringement on a free and fair society and we can’t endure that for long,” Mr Falinski said.
“I think parks are pretty low-hanging fruit. You cannot have in a free society the movement of people being subject to confinement and monitoring in that way. It is an anathema to the country that we live in.”
Mr Falinski said the crackdown focus should be on businesses and locations where people were openly flouting social-distancing requirements, including backpacker hostels that had hosted parties.
“The beaches, the backpackers, the bigger ones,” he said.
NSW Police Minister David Elliott defended the measures, saying they were in place for the health of the community. “There is no perfect 100 per cent way of avoiding contact; all the regulations that we’ve introduced, all of the practices that the police and the Premier and Prime Minister are calling on people to comply with are all about mitigation,” Mr Elliott said.
“If you’re at risk of acquiring coronavirus we would ask you to take reasonable steps to avoid it.”
Under the rules, people are permitted to be outside their homes in a group consisting of no more than two people, unless the additional people are family members or from the same household.The law allows for fines of up to $11,000 or six months’ imprisonment for those outside their homes without a “reasonable excuse”.
A convoy of five police cars descended on Rushcutters Bay Park in Sydney’s east on Tuesday afternoon. Officers drove up to people sunbaking alone, or walking with prams at a distance from others, and ordered them to leave the vicinity. Joggers running around the same park were permitted to remain in the area. Further south, on Coogee beach, the NSW Police Public Order and Riot Squad was deployed to move on locals after a large crowd swarmed to the beachfront for the late afternoon sun.
NSW has the highest tally of COVID-19 cases — as of 8pm on Tuesday infections stood at 2032, according to figures released by NSW Health.
The public health orders, celebrated by some, have drawn criticism elsewhere for their inconsistencies.
Currently, a person can visit a major retailer such as Bunnings, Officeworks or IKEA, and mingle at a distance from others without fear of being stopped by police. If, however, they leave their house to visit a friend or relative, they would be breaching the law without a “reasonable excuse” for doing so.
Mr Falinski’s federal Liberal colleague, Craig Kelly, also criticised the NSW Premier for implementing stricter rules than those enforced in other states. “Where one of the members of the national cabinet goes off on a frolic of their own it risks undermining the national approach that we have,” Mr Kelly said.
Mr Fuller on Tuesday flagged an intention to use the defence force to deal with the removal of nine cruise ships floating off the coast of NSW.
The cruise liners are refusing to abide by a federal government edict that they return to their port of origin, as they would not be given permission to disembark. Mr Fuller said the ships had initiated appeals against the government’s decision, with a result to be known in coming days.
He flagged calling in the Royal Australian Navy if required.
“Potentially, we could call on defence,” he said. “Defence are involved in the operation, but I’d certainly like to think diplomacy will be the lead here.”
Cruise ships have remained an ongoing thorn in the side of the Berejiklian government for the past month, none more than the Ruby Princess, which docked in Sydney on March 19.
Its 2647 passengers were allowed off the ship prior to COVID-19 testing having been completed on 13 people with flu-like symptoms.
In the subsequent weeks, 211 passengers have tested positive for the virus, six people in the community have contracted the illness, and five passengers have died around the country. These include an ACT woman aged in her 80s, and two passengers from Tasmania, who were revealed on Tuesday as the latest casualties.
The push to aggressively enforce social-distancing measures at city parks, beaches and other public leisure zones follows a series of COVID-19 related arrests over the past two days.
Matthew Adam Stephan, a 30-year-old Sydney man, sobbed before a magistrate on Tuesday after he was ordered to remain behind bars until next week for allegedly breaching self-isolation protocols three times over the weekend. He was remanded in custody to undergo a mental health assessment, expected to take place next week.
Concerns about COVID-19 clustering in the Waverley and Northern Beaches local government areas are expected to see the first of a series of pop-up clinics established from Wednesday to boost localised testing.
According to the Citymapper Mobility Index, published by the Prime Minister’s office on Tuesday, people’s movements in Sydney and Melbourne have plunged since the World Health Organisation declared the COVID-19 crisis a pandemic Public transport and mobile phone location data shows that the population’s movement dropped to about 60 per cent of its normal level after the government restricted public gatherings to 100 people, and to just 20 per cent in the past week.
Additional reporting: Deborah Cornwall
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