Merseyside Police Travelsafe Police Community Support Officers have been out on the buses supported by colleagues from Merseyside Special Constabulary, British Transport Police and Stagecoach buses to make sure that members of the public are keeping each other safe and adhering to restrictions in place to prevent the spread of Coronavirus.
During the operation 319 buses were checked and officers were able to speak to more than 1000 passengers. Only 54 were not wearing facemasks and of them, 27 were medically exempt from having to wear the mask.
Ten people were removed from the buses for non essential travel, eight ticket frauds were detected and one bus pass was seized due to fraudulent use.
Chief Inspector Peter Clark, said, “Officers engaged with more than 1000 bus passengers throughout today and it was pleasing to see that 97% of passengers on the buses were doing the right thing to keep themselves and others safe.
“Throughout the day officers were well received and the public were really positive in relation to the activity being undertaken to keep the public safe. For some of those in essential jobs public transport is vital to get them to work and we need to ensure that those on public transport understand why it is so important to do the right thing for both the bus drivers, who are providing an essential public service, and other passengers.
“Keeping our communities safe is our main priority, and we will continue to be proactive in our policing of the current regulations to help drive down the number of cases of Coronavirus in the Merseyside region.”
Elsewhere across the force for the 24 hour period on Saturday, officers issued 77 fixed penalty notices were issued for various offences, including leaving or being outside of a place where living, without reasonable excuse; participating in a gathering in a private dwelling or in an outdoor place and failing to cease carrying on business/service not permitted to be open.
