Police disperse 6,600 flouting lockdown in a week as total nears 50,000

Officers have now taken action against rule breakers nearly 50,000 times.
Police have had to disperse more than 40,000 groups since lockdown began. Picture: John Devlin.Police have had to disperse more than 40,000 groups since lockdown began. Picture: John Devlin.
Police have had to disperse more than 40,000 groups since lockdown began. Picture: John Devlin.

Police Scotland chief constable Iain Livingstone warned today that officers would be out in force after having to deal with a “concerning” number of gathering at parks, beaches and beauty spots last weekend.

He said: “I would ask people do not travel to busy places.

"In key areas where people have been gathering, we will have significant levels of visibility.”

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Lockdown regulations restrict travel to within around five miles of your home.

Mr Livingstone also told people not to have house parties instead if it rained, which would prompt “very robust action”.

He said: “That’s particularly dangerous in the spread of the virus.”

He said the good weather last weekend had made some people “demob happy” despite groups of more than eight being banned.

Traffic around Loch Lomond and Glencoe last Sunday was 70 per cent higher than the previous Sunday.

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Mr Livingstone said the extra police activity followed widespread flouting of the slightly-eased lockdown restrictions last weekend.

It led to more than 2,000 police dispersals in 72 hours, including nearly 800 last Saturday - five times the number on the previous Saturday.

Police figures published today showed there were a total of 6,600 dispersals over the last week - a 16 per cent increase on the previous seven days.

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These comprised 4,357 groups dispersing when informed by police and 2,107 when instructed, while 36 were dispersed using “reasonable force”.

A total of 110 fines were issued and there were 11 arrests.

The figures take the total police interventions since lockdown in late March to 47,691, including 3,213 fines and 238 arrests.

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