Source: New Zealand Police (District News)
Please attribute to Assistant Commissioner Richard Chambers:
There has been a large increase in the numbers of vehicles being turned around at Police checkpoints in North and South Auckland as the region remains under Alert Level 3.
As of 4pm yesterday, Police has processed 86,685 vehicles through the 13 different checkpoints. A total of 4,781 have been turned around.
The numbers show us that on Monday and Tuesday, Police has turned around a significantly higher number of vehicles than in previous days and are taking a firm approach when it comes to allowing people in and out of Tāmaki Makaurau.
We are seeing less queues at the main checkpoints and people much more ready with their documentation but we must stress that there will still be wait times at peak hours.
We are doing our best to process people as quickly as we can but it is really important that Police ensures that anyone wanting travel in or out of the city is doing so for legitimate reasons.
We are really thankful to our community who have been incredibly receptive to our checkpoints and understanding that Police must be provided with relevant documentation or exemption letters to allow people in and out of Auckland.
We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the Police staff and New Zealand Defence Force workers who are operating these checkpoints. It has been particularly wet weather conditions today and is expected to continue so a big thanks to all of the collective hard work going into making these checkpoints run as smoothly as we can.
ENDS
Shelley Nahr/NZ Police
