I have a couple of mates who are Police, including my wife's best friend and her husband who's an inspector. I think the general gist is they are damed if they do, damed if they don't, from listening to their conversations. They got given brand new powers to enforce, with very sketchy guidelines that are often open to interpretation and literally having the goal posts moved on a daily basis by politicians. They use these powers to carry out the duties they've been asked to enforce, then get accused of being heavy handed, or some lowlife films them and edits the circumstance to suit themselves, making the bobbly look like they are being overzealous, and then splash it all over social media. Meaning that officer that was just doing their job has to be made to apologise to the offender.
I suspect that most seasoned coppers will now do the bare minimum to show willing, but anything outside that will just get ignored now. Hence a very obvious visual presence as you saw, but those members of the public that bent the rules to suit themselves... Well, if I was a bobby, i'd just let them crack on now.
I don't see those bending the rules or those deliberately breaking them, any worse or any better than the highly respected members of my own street that are out every single day, going about their daily life without a worry in the world. They are all the same and i'm over giving a crap about these people now. They are the ones they will have to live with any consequences of a person close to them, that they came into contact with, that gets infected and god forbid should die from this virus.
