Police have so far turned around a total of 4781 vehicles for undertaking non-essential travel during Alert Level 3 across Auckland’s Covid-19 checkpoints.
Assistant Commissioner Richard Chambers said police were taking a firm approach when it came to allowing people in and out of the Auckland region, which remains under Alert Level 3 while the rest of the country was at Alert Level 2.
“There has been a large increase in the numbers of vehicles being turned around,” he said.
As of 4pm yesterday since the start of Alert Level 3 restrictions, 86,685 vehicles passed through the 13 different police checkpoints in north and south Auckland, Mr Chambers said.
He said a total of 4781 have been turned around.
Mr Chambers also said there were “less queues” at the main checkpoints as more people were turning up with the documents they needed.
The average waiting times at southern checkpoints were 30 minutes, and five minutes at northern ones, he said.
It comes as National's Hunua MP Andrew Bayly said on Monday people were frustrated" they couldn’t travel into Auckland for work.
“I have been contacted by large numbers of people who have expressed frustration at what they say is inconsistency around who can and cannot cross the border into Auckland," he said.
“This has serious implications. I have heard from an Auckland emergency services worker who took four hours to get to work today, hindering this essential service.”
He called on the Government to fix the issues.
Mr Chambers said police were doing the best it could to get people through the checkpoints as fast as they could.
“But it is really important that police ensure that anyone wanting to travel in or out of the city is doing so for legitimate reasons,” he said.
SHARE ME