There are about 400 roving patrols along Victoria's NSW and South Australian borders, with 76,630 people checked along, or on major routes near, the borders since June 26, at an overall compliance of 98.9 per cent.
More than 60,000 of the checks were conducted at alcohol and drug testing bus locations, with the remainder by mobile patrol units.
“The combination of fixed and roving patrols at the state borders has been really successful as it allows us to check both main arterials and back roads,” Victoria Police deputy commissioner Rick Nugent said.
“When we only had fixed borders, this significantly impacted on border communities and freight movement, which were permitted under the directions.
“Now we have the ability to deploy vehicles at border crossing sites and deeper into Victoria to effectively identify unauthorised entry to the state.
“The border communities have benefited from this roving model as there have been next to no traffic congestion and approved travellers can get to work and school without delays.”
According to police, most people who were found to be non-compliant were either naïve or unaware of the required process, such as freight permits not being completed properly, resulting in a warning and the driver being told to turn around and come back with correct paperwork.
Fines have been issued to people entering Victoria without a permit or attempting to travel into the state from a red zone without an exemption.
“While it’s been really pleasing to see such a high compliance rate at the border and across the state, we have seen people blatantly breaching CHO directions,” Mr Nugent said.
“On these occasions, we have not hesitated to issue $1817 fines.”
Since the announcement of stay-at-home orders in NSW, Victoria Police has seen a significant reduction of traffic between the states, with most vehicles either from the border zone or heavy transport moving freight.
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