Police today released breakdowns of breaches of the Civil Defence Emergency Act and the Health Act during Alert Level 4.
In the Southern Police District, the Health Act was breached 371 times, with 50 prosecutions, 299 warnings, and 22 youth referrals.
The numbers were much smaller under the Civil Defence Emergency Act.
There were 14 breaches of the Act — 11 warnings, two prosecutions, and one youth referral.
In a statement Police Commissioner Andrew Coster urged people to stick to the new Level 3 rules.
“The sacrifices we all made over the last 33 days have made a real difference, but we can’t get complacent.
‘‘We are now at Alert Level 3, that means staying at home whenever possible, limiting any travel and sticking to your household bubble.’’
During the Alert Level 4 restrictions police undertook tens of thousands of reassurance checks at essential facilities such as supermarkets, pharmacies and petrol stations and community patrols across the country.
The focus was to educate and encourage compliance with the restrictions, but where necessary, when offending was persistent or serious, enforcement action was taken.
As of 6pm yesterday there had been 5857 breaches of the Civil Defence Emergency Act or the Health Act since the Alert Level 4 restrictions came into place.
Of those breaches 554 were under the CDEM Act and 5,303 were under the Health Act.
Counties Manukau and Wellington Districts recorded the highest number of breaches, where enforcement action was taken, while Northland and Bay of Plenty had the lowest.
