Operation Guardian – as police move to protect regional areas

With regional areas poised to come out of lockdown tonight, police have warned anyone caught trying to visit regional areas without a valid exemption faces a $5424 fine.

Deputy Commissioner Rick Nugent said police were launching Operation Guardian from midnight (September 9), to protect regional areas from the spread of the virus.

He said there would be 200 police on “permanent and visible patrols on regional arterial roads and back roads” and implored people to abide by the lockdown rules still in place in Melbourne.

The operation will include random check points, booze buses, roving patrols and automatic number-plate recognition technology (ANPR) to identify people who were trying to get from Melbourne to regional areas.

Local police resources will target tourist areas in the state and he asked people in the city to abide by the public health directives and not visit regional areas.

“Please don’t do it,” Deputy Commissioner Nugent said.

“The majority of the community have been outstanding, but we still come across people who ignore those rules.

“We’re imploring people to abide by the rules. Don’t spread this virus within regional areas.”

He said anyone thinking of sneaking into the regions should expect to be intercepted and warned going to a regional café, restaurant or pub could be an expensive outing, with fines of $5452 in place for breaking the rules set by the Chief Health Officer.

Since Wednesday, police had increased patrols in the main metropolitan border areas but had not seen a significant increase in traffic.

ID checks

Deputy Commissioner Nugent said regional business would again be required to check that patrons were not from Melbourne.

He said the business checks were part of a whole of community approach to the issue, to help identify people who shouldn’t be in an area.

“Businesses have engaged in this process. They don’t want to end up with a whole lot of people from Melbourne who spread the virus and shut things down.

“Local communities do all they can to keep their community safe and they’ll be very active I’m sure.”

Anyone with concerns can contact the Coronavirus Hotline on 1800 675 398  or call the Police Assistance Line on 131 444.