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Commentary
The sudden lockdown in Auckland over the weekend was accompanied by checkpoints at the city limits to stop non-essential movement through the region.
Newsroom co-editor Mark Jennings was among those caught in a queue that trapped some people for up to 10 hours.
The main police checkpoint on Auckland’s southern border on Sunday was a sham.
Despite the experience gained from enforcing previous closures, the resources allocated to the checkpoint on State Highway 1 near Meremere were regrettable and dangerously inadequate.
We (my partner and her teenage children) were among the thousands returning to Auckland after a weekend away. Google maps showed a two hour delay when we reached the stationary traffic line just south of Hampton Downs at 3.16pm. While we occasionally move slowly, Google’s estimate of the delay did not drop, it actually increased. It would be exactly four hours later when we reached the checkpoint. Four hours to travel approximately 10 kilometers.
What we witnessed in those four hours was disturbing and distressing. Two ambulances pushed forward, their lights flashing for an eternity in our rearview mirror.
When we finally passed one, we could see a distraught man being treated in the back of the emergency vehicle. Was it a medical event? Maybe it was dehydration caused by not having water, or at least enough water, for four hours on a hot afternoon.
People riding in old cars, cars without air conditioning, found the ordeal almost unbearable. Parents could be seen pulling babies out of their car seats and walking along parts of the road trying to comfort them.
Children and adults walked up and down the pullover lane of the highway while the line of cars remained parked for long periods of time.
It was dangerous. Cars, seeking to avoid the queue or exit onto a side road, arrived, without warning, along this unofficial third lane. A motorcycle roared past him. What happened when they got to the checkpoint? They certainly weren’t returned.
The drivers, annoyed by what they perceived as rude and possibly reckless behavior, attempted to block the “cheat lane”. A milk tanker in front of us managed to do this for a while until the traffic started moving and stopped in one of the two corresponding lanes.
People of all ages climbed over barriers and climbed bush embankments to go to the bathroom.
What were the elderly or the disabled supposed to do? I do not know.
Information seemed scant. The only road sign we saw up to the checkpoint was a queue ahead warning. A scan of various news sites suggested that the police wanted proof of residency in Auckland. The articles suggested displaying a utility bill at the checkpoint. I found an energy bill in my email on my phone.
Eventually two lanes merged into one and we crawled for another kilometer before it split into two lanes at the checkpoint. Unbelievably, there were only eight or maybe 10 police officers present. Even more astonishing was the question. “So let’s go home, are we friends?” A simple “yes” would have ushered us in. I picked up my phone from the front passenger seat, thinking there must be more to this, “What’s that, a bill?” asked the officer. There was no way he could see our address on the small screen, but he thanked us and we moved on.
So, for this we had queued for four hours? We felt lucky, thousands of cars stretched out as far back as we could see. Some ended up queuing for many more hours than we did. And for what? Others who were also stuck in the queue confirmed to Newsroom that the controls were, at best, perfunctory.
In a press release published around noon Monday, police said they had processed 25,000 cars through the north and south checkpoints and rejected 263. That’s just over 1 percent.
Sure, it makes sense to control people leaving Auckland, but it doesn’t make sense to bother about a hundred thousand people to stop a small number trying to enter a lockdown.
And what were the police doing? There are 2,800 police officers in the Auckland metropolitan district and almost 3,500 if you add in the Waikato district, but were there only eight to ten at the main checkpoint? The delays started early in the day, so this was not a case of sudden and unexpected build-up. The prime minister told morning news programs Monday that the army had been dispatched to help, but at 7.15pm Sunday there was no sign of khaki uniforms at the main southern checkpoint.
It might be fair to argue that the two lanes on either side of the road on Auckland’s southern boundary make it difficult to have efficient checkpoints, but if that’s the case, then a better system needs to be found.
Police, in the press release, acknowledged motorists for their patience and cooperation, but fiascos like Sunday’s must be avoided if they expect the strong compliance of the majority of New Zealanders to continue.
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