Tūrangi police: a drive to the mountain is not on in level 4

Police turn around traffic at a pandemic checkpoint. Photo /George Heard NZ Herald

Kia ora koutou - well, here we are in lockdown 2.0 ,and for us here at Tūrangi Police we are keeping busy running checkpoints, working with local families and our support partners and providing reassurance in the community.

We've done quite a few checkpoints on the roads since lockdown began and there are still people driving between areas, with some still trying to get home having been held up for various reasons on their journey, whether work, health issues or similar. The idea of the checkpoints is for people to see that we are out there in the community and keeping an eye on what's going on.

What we are seeing this time is more people out on the roads, whereas last lockdown they were more cautious, even though this Delta variant is more serious. Most are out for legitimate reasons, however we have turned a lot of people around and some it was for really stupid reasons like wanting to look at the snow on the mountain or wanting to go for a drive, business workers trying to get into their office, those sorts of things. Remember, if it's not essential, then you shouldn't be out, whether it's out on the roads or mixing with other groups and breaking your bubbles.

Our approach is first to educate - tell people why they shouldn't be out. The second time, it's a warning. More than that and you can expect an infringement notice, followed the next time by a court summons. But so far, everyone has been pretty compliant, we've only had to give out two warnings and we've been quite happy. Yes, we have come across quite a few people staying in our area who have come here for lockdown and we're not the only town that's had this happen. It hasn't happened in the same numbers as last year, I guess because this time people didn't think the lockdown would be for as long. We're providing education to those we are coming across about why it isn't such a flash idea to leave their home town and come here during a lockdown, but there are also other people who are legitimately here because for various reasons it's not a good idea for them to stay in lockdown at home with their family.

Sergeant Te Reipa Morunga, Tūrangi Police. Photo / NZME

As well as that work, we've also been in close contact with our vulnerable families to make sure they are okay and working with our partners to see how we can help. Our early intervention has helped to keep our family harm incident numbers down. As soon as we heard there was a lockdown coming, the next day we were knocking on doors taking to our families about what they had in place and what else they needed and working with other agencies to support them. We have a really good team here - it shows in the results and we're proud of them. Tūrangi Foodbank has had food donated by local trusts and from local lodges that had large conferences booked that had to cancel due to lockdown so they've been getting food parcels together for families that need them. As police we also have food on hand if we're called out late at night and notice that the people we're seeing don't have any kai on the shelves.

The other thing we're helping with in town this week is a mass vaccination event being run by Tuwharetoa Health. We'll be monitoring that and working alongside the team to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Kia haumaru, stay safe. Ngā mihi, Te Reipa.