Official VicPol response to the video. It is still a pretty extreme use of force considering everything that is going on. In the right or not maybe the officer should have asked a superior to step in.
Police are aware of a video circulating on social media where a woman was arrested at a police checkpoint.
Police arrested a 29-year-old woman after she allegedly refused to provide her details and driver’s licence at a checkpoint in Kalkallo just before 6pm on Saturday (12 September).
The checkpoints between metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria are an important component in stopping the spread of Coronavirus.
Police spoke to the female driver at the checkpoint in relation to her mobile phone obstructing her view due to its position on the windscreen and explained that this was an offence.
The woman refused to remove her phone from the windscreen.
When asked for her name and address, the woman refused to supply her details which is an offence under Section 59 of the Road Safety Act. When asked to produce her driver’s licence, the woman also refused, which is also an offence under Section 59 of the Road Safety Act.
The woman was warned that if she did not provide her details, she would be arrested.
She still refused and was asked by police to get out of her car. When she refused this request, she was taken from the car by officers and taken into custody.
The Wallan woman was later released and is expected to be charged on summons with driving with obscured vision, fail to produce licence, fail to state her name and address, resist arrest, assault police and offensive language.
Victoria Police reminds all drivers that the Road Safety Act requires that they must state their name and address and produce their driver’s licence when requested to do so by a police officer.