By Laura Michell
Police have warned residents of locked down suburbs to expect to be stopped by police and fined if they are leaving their home for non-essential reasons.
The warning comes as police this morning set up roadblocks and checkpoints on roads across the 10 postcodes facing stay-at-home orders.
One such checkpoint was set up on Camp Road in Broadmeadows, where police were pulling over motorists and asking where they were travelling to and why.
Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said police would be targeting arterial roads and some back roads to ensure residents of the locked-down postcodes were adhering to the Chief Health Officer’s orders.
He warned that booze buses would be set up in “static locations” and would move on throughout the day.
Police will also be using Automatic Numberplate Recognition Technology to identify motorists who are away from home.
“People will not know where we will be. They will now know how long we will be there for, but they will be intercepted,” Chief Commissioner Patton said.
“People in those restricted postcode areas, those suburbs, they can expect to see a very strong, visible police presence where they’ll be pulled over and we’ll be speaking to them to make sure that they are supposed to be out and about.”
Chief Commissioner Patton said “there was no doubt” that police would fine people found to be breaching the stay-at-home orders.
“You would have to have been on Mars not to understand that the Chief Health Officer’s restrictions apply to these 36 suburbs and that you are expected to adhere to them.
“It is up to us to make sure that those selfish few who aren’t adhering to the guidelines know there are consequences, and by doing that, we can help to stop the spread.”
