COVID-19: On lookout in a lockdown

Editorial: Grant Condon and Jesse Wray-McCann

Photography: Jesse Wray-McCann

It’s a cold Tuesday night in April. In a Melbourne home, seven women gather together for a dinner party.

In another house, three mates come together to play video games.

In ordinary times this is normal behaviour, but on this night in April, these 10 people are breaking the law and putting themselves and others in danger.

Under the directions of Victoria’s Chief Health Officer (CHO), gatherings of more than two people who don’t live together are no longer allowed both indoors and outdoors.

It’s a strict measure, but one that is essential to stop the spread of the insidious coronavirus (COVID-19), a deadly pandemic that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives across the world and plunged countries into lengthy lockdowns.

By this stage in April, it is known the virus is highly transferrable and a person showing no symptoms can unwittingly give the virus to another, who could then go on to give it to another, and so on.

The devastating impact of the virus is also known too, with the elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions at most risk.

What’s not known at this stage is how far the virus could spread in the community, with some estimates suggesting 150,000 Australians could die as a result of the pandemic.

By this night in early April, the virus has already taken the lives of 11 Victorians.

As result, Victorians have been told to only leave their homes for essential purposes such as going to work, buying food or seeking medical attention.

Socialising is off the cards.

That’s why the women at the dinner party and the mates playing video games have come to the attention of one group that is allowed to move through the streets at night – the officers that make up Victoria Police’s Operation Sentinel.

Operation Sentinel police knocked on doors and maintained a presence at parks, beaches and other public areas to ensure people were adhering to the Chief Health Officer's directions.

Established in the early days of the pandemic in Victoria, Operation Sentinel was created to ensure the directions of the CHO, legally binding under the declaration of a State of Emergency, were adhered to.

In total, 500 police officers were assigned to work solely on the operation while police across the state also continued to ensure compliance with the new restrictions, patrolling streets, parks, beaches and other places people usually gather.

Then-Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton said pulling up people for otherwise ordinary occurrences presented a challenge for Operation Sentinel officers.

“Our officers on the street were operating in such an area of ambiguity, because the restrictions could never be prescriptive for every situation they would encounter,” DC Patton said.

“So they were there always trying to determine, ‘Is this infringeable? Should I be giving an infringement? Would a warning suffice, and how would I get that message across?’”

DC Patton said that while the punishment for breaching the restrictions – a $1,652 fine for individuals and $9,913 for businesses – may seem harsh, it pales in comparison to the deadly consequences of spreading the disease.

“Our mission was simple – to save lives,” DC Patton said.

“And we needed to do that by enforcing the Chief Health Officer’s restrictions.

Our officers were applying a commonsense approach, but we needed the public to be on board in those efforts, too.

Operation Sentinel began on March 21 and by the end of June, its officers had conducted 83,578 spot checks on people and businesses to ensure compliance with the restrictions.

They had given 1,399 official warnings to people and handed out 5,185 fines.

In the first few weeks of the operation, police were kept busy checking on people who were required to be self-isolating after returning from overseas.

Then they also contacted and checked on people who the Department of Health and Human Services believed may have come into contact with someone with the virus.

And then as restrictions eased, Operation Sentinel police ensured reopened businesses were abiding by patron limits and other directions.

But their role wasn’t always about enforcement.

First Constable Cameron McIntosh was part of Operation Sentinel in Melbourne’s inner-south suburbs and said he noticed a common theme with many people in isolation.

“When we knocked on their front doors to check on them, a lot of people just wanted to chat,” Const McIntosh said.

“For some people, we were among the only people they had seen in person for days or weeks, so they understandably just wanted that interaction with us.

“Some were keen to chat for a bit too long, but there were others who we knew we needed to be there for.

“I remember we knocked on this one elderly man’s door in South Yarra and he told us how his wife had just died from coronavirus and he hadn’t been able to visit her in the hospital because of the lockdown.

“He was grieving on his own and doing it really tough.

"We knew it was a time to be there for him and to try to find him the support he needed."