The response from Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton comes after an email he sent to all Victorian Police officers asking them to use discretion in issuing fines to the public while enforcing measures outlined by the chief health officer.
Patton said that while police would continue to enforce the law and fine people for “blatant breaches’’ as part of Operation Sentinal, the force did not need to use a “sledge hammer’’ approach to the state’s coronavirus restrictions.
He said his directive to members on the street was to use discretion and common sense.
“It’s important that we’re using discretion in maintaining the public confidence in us in the way we’re applying those,’’ Patton said.
“On a daily basis, every infringement that has been issued will be reviewed by the superintendent in charge of Operation Sentinel and I’ll be personally provided a report and I will review every one of those personally.
“We’re going to be proactively looking at this.
“We’re not waiting for people to come to us and say this is wrong.
“We’re going to be every day looking at these infringements to make sure we’ve got it right because I want to be absolutely certain we do have it right and that’s why I’m personally going to be looking at the entire list of infringements every day.’’
Patton said police were human and mistakes occurred.
“We’re happy to admit when we are wrong,’’ he said.
“When we do get it wrong, we’ll fill fix it.’’
“We will adopt that approach effective from today.’’
It comes as Victoria Police conducted 824 checks on homes, businesses, and “non-essential services” and issued 52 fines in the past day.
Six people playing tennis on closed public tennis courts in Maribyrnong and 10 teenagers at a skate park in Dandenong were among those fined on Tuesday.
In total, there have been more than 1200 fines since strict social distancing rules came into place with less than 10 of those now revoked.
There have been criticisms that some of these fines were either issued by mistake, or they were too harsh.
Last week, Patton overturned a controversial fine given to a learner driver accused of breaching the restrictions.
Hunter Reynolds, 17, drove from her Hampton home to Frankston with her mother when she was pulled over by police and fined for “non-essential” travel and was slapped with a $1652 on-the-spot fine.
Under Victoria’s stage three restrictions, residents can leave their homes to go shopping for food and essential supplies, medical care or caregiving, work or education if necessary and exercise.
People can be fined $1652 if they leave home for non-essential reasons and businesses face a $9913 fine if caught doing the wrong thing.
Health Minister Jenny Mikakos confirmed on Tuesday 10 people in Victoria had tested positive for coronavirus overnight, bringing the state’s total number of confirmed cases to 1291.
No deaths were recorded overnight, meaning the state’s death toll remains at 14.
