PUBLIC compliance with the coronavirus lockdown has “steadily dissipated” with the onset of better summer weather, Scotland’s rank and file police officers have warned.

The Scottish Police Federation also said that trying to reimpose restrictions if the disease rebounded would be the force’s “biggest challenge” of the crisis.

The SPF, which represents Police Scotland’s 17,000 officers, raised the warnings in written evidence to Holyrood’s justice committee, which is looking at the policing of the pandemic.

The committee will hear today from Chief Constable Iain Livingstone and John Scott QC, Chair of the Independent Advisory Group on the police’s use of temporary Covid powers.

In its evidence, the SPF said it was “regrettable” that the lockdown laws were created with too little consultation with the police, despite their unprecedented scope.

It said the lockdown was fraying, a problem made worse by the gap between what guidance advised and what could be legally enforced.

It said: “Although anecdotal, it is our observation that public compliance with the public health guidance, and indeed the regulations has steadily dissipated as the weather has improved.

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“Police officers have faced the real challenges of a public expecting the police to enforce government guidance and the considerable gap between it and the actual legislative provisions.

“The SPF feels that rather that seek to address that gap in its messaging, the Government messaging was deliberately ambiguous and this has led to an outpouring of frustration (particularly on social media) between those who want the police to be more authoritarian and those who advocate for liberty and policing within the limits of the law (arguably to be able to enjoy greater freedom than the guidance suggested).

“In some respects, the SPF considers that the Covid19 restrictions represent perfectly what it is politicians and public expect of the police.

“On one hand they expect the police to go beyond their lawful powers to ‘do the right thing’ whilst on the other they are intolerant of the police doing anything that is not explicitly codified.

“To be clear, the SPF considers that there is already too much of a gap emerging between what the law says, what the guidance says, and what the public is prepared to tolerate. We see that gap only growing in the weeks ahead.

“The sense of a hunger for ‘freedom’ is increasing with each passing day.”

The SPF also said officers were “exceptionally angry” that those who tried to assault them with Covid by coughing or spitting were not always locked up pending a court appearance.

It said: “The harm this caused (and continues to cause) cannot be understated. On one hand, officers were (and are) expected to enforce legislation to ‘save lives’ whilst on the other having to tolerate that those who endangered their own lives often being home in their beds before the officers themselves were off duty.”

Last week, Nicola Sturgeon threatened to create new laws on socialising and travel if the public continued to ignore guidance as the lockdown was gradually lifted.

In its evidence, the Association of Police Superintendents echoed the SPF in saying any new changes to the law must be reasonable and enforceable.

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It said: “It is hoped that any amendments or new legislation will avoid creating offences that criminalise the public for what in most instances will be normal behaviours and actions.

“Care must also be taken to avoid gaps in the regulations that then require non-enforceable advice/guidance to be regularly issued.

“Aspects of guidance such as the recent limited travel distance of five miles highlight the difficulty in achieving ‘compliance realism’ and risk discriminating against those people living in rural communities if brought into strict regulation.

“Assessment of the continuation and longevity of the public’s goodwill, to grant the police the consent and authority to enforce the regulations must be taken into careful consideration.”

Green MSP John Finnie, convener of the justice sub-committee on policing, said: “Policing in these extraordinary times, with powers inconceivable even a month before they were brought into force, was always going to be a challenge. Members are very grateful to officers and staff for rising to this unique challenge, with the low number of enforcement actions being testament not only to the public’s cooperation, but also the proportionate and consensual approach taken by the force.

“Nonetheless, public scrutiny of the police remains as important as ever, particularly as we begin to take steps out of lockdown and police powers continue to change.

“There will also be more challenging circumstances ahead, which need to be thought about carefully before we, as legislators, and the police, as those who enforce criminal law, take further action.”