Chief Constable records personal message for the people of Milton Keynes

In a speech recorded for all to hear, he said police will enforce the rules with "common sense and empathy" - but warns they will take action against rule-breakers when necessary.

Mr Campbell said: “The government has directed people to stay inside and only to go out for very specific reasons: to buy essential food and provisions, for a medical emergency, to care for someone, or to travel to and from work only when absolutely necessary. I am urging you to all take this advice."

“We will continue our day to day policing duties, working with our communities to ensure we are all complying with this essential government direction. However if the public do not take the advice we will look to use the new police powers in order to safeguard everyone. We are expecting legislation and further government guidance on this shortly."

Mr Campbell added: “You may be wondering how Thames Valley Police is coping and what we are doing to make sure we can still respond. We are taking all necessary steps to protect our officers and staff. This is so that we can continue to protect the most vulnerable and respond where we are needed most.

“We have strong, well tested contingency plans in place to deal with all possibilities, and we will continue to serve the public during this exceptionally challenging time."

He concluded: “If you take anything from this message please let it be this. Stay at home, protect yourself, protect your loved ones and those around you, and feel confident that Thames Valley Police will continue to protect you. We can all work together to best protect Thames Valley and the nation through this pandemic.”

Thames Valley Police will be posting advice, updates and crime prevention advice on their Facebook and Twitter accounts, on their website and through the Thames Valley Alert system, which people can sign up to online.