In a bid to clear this up assistant chief constable Alan Todd provided an overview of how police are dealing with those they come across exercising. 

“You should only be leaving home for a number of key reasons – these include getting food and basic supplies, seeking medical assistance and taking exercise close to your home.

“These restrictions are new for you and new for the police service. We are all in this together. I would ask that you take a common sense approach and so will we. In particular, one of the areas where we would ask our community to give careful consideration is around exercise. 

“Exercise is important for everyone’s wellbeing and the advice is to, where possible, start your exercise from your front door. 

We know that for some people’s circumstances, this is difficult and police officers are being asked to use their judgement. For example, a person taking someone with a disability to an open park could have a valid reason for that journey. Someone taking an autistic child to a park as part of a care plan could also have a valid reason for that journey. However the vast majority of us will not need to travel from home in order to exercise.

“The restrictions require that you have not just a reason to leave home but a necessity to leave home. Leaving home without that necessity may put you in breach of the restrictions.” 

Encouraging residents to be mindful of what was a necessity he added, “These are the questions you need to ask yourself before you travel; Is it really necessary for you to travel away from your home for exercise? 

Is it reasonable to expect that you could take your exercise from your front door.

“These are the questions on reasonableness and necessity our officers will ask when speaking to you. Help us to support our health service to jointly fight the spread of the virus. Please – stay home and save lives.”