British police say coronavirus restrictions are confusing, difficult to patrol due to ‘mixed messages’

Police officers speak to a man as they patrol the beach in Brighton Saturday.(Gareth Fuller/AP)

The British police are having trouble keeping people at home during the coronavirus lockdown, they say, because they don’t know who’s supposed to be at home.

“My colleagues are the ones being asked — on an hourly, daily basis — to put this into practice,” London’s Metropolitan Police Federation chief Ken Marsh told BBC Radio 5 Monday, according to CNN.

“And when you’re trying to ask two people not to sit on a bench, and my colleague looks over his or her shoulder and sees 300 people queueing to go to a DIY store without a piece of paper between them, then what do we do?”

Marsh said officials are getting “mixed messages” from the prime minister’s office at 10 Downing Street.

As the weather warms up in England, health officials have warned people not to be wooed outside by the sun. London parks and beaches along the coast have been crowded over the last few weeks, despite social distancing guidelines and lockdown protocols.

More than 20,000 people have died from coronavirus in United Kingdom hospitals so far, but health officials have said the daily infection rate is slowing steadily.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who had been deputized while Prime Minister Boris Johnson was recovering from coronavirus, said Sunday that schools, sport and businesses could begin to return to “a new normal.”

“I think it’s inconceivable that they would come back without further measures, as are already being applied in those schools that are open for key workers,” he said on BBC One.

The British government has told citizens to go outside only for essential work, food shopping or medical reasons.