Policing the Pandemic: The Role of Enforcement in Securing Compliance with the Coronavirus Regulations

Compliance with the Coronavirus Regulations has been one of the most hotly debated topics of the pandemic. UK Police Forces were given unprecedented powers to enforce non-compliance with the Regulations, and yet there is a striking lack of robust evidence on the characteristics of those failing to comply with the Regulations. We know little about the reasons for their non-compliant behaviour, the level of risk they posed to the public or the impact of police enforcement. This project will conduct an in-depth examination of the factors and vulnerabilities underlying people's inability or unwillingness to comply and their Covid-19 testing and mortality outcomes. It will also explore police use of enforcement to secure compliance and the impact of this on individuals. Using a mixed method approach, it will provide insights from a unique database of Fixed Penalty Notices that were issued in Scotland, which will be linked at an individual level to a rich array of health, economic and social data within Scotland's Covid-19 Data for Research. It will also offer insights from interviews with individual offenders and police officers involved in the use of enforcement. The findings will be of significant interest and value to police officers, policy makers, and politicians across the UK in considering how best to encourage, enable, support or compel people to adhere to the Regulations as we encounter future waves of the current pandemic, and in any future public health (or other) emergency requiring some form of mass public compliance.