Police are searching for a man who drove off from a checkpoint yesterday morning with an officer's arm stuck in his car window.
The incident happened around 7:15am at the intersection of Coal Hill Road and Mangawhai Rd, on Auckland's northern border.
The officer noticed the man was making moves to flee the scene after being identified as a disqualified driver and so reached into the car to remove the keys.
However, the man then drove off while the officer's arm was still in the vehicle.
Waitematā District Commander Superintendent Naila Hassan said the officer managed to free himself and avoid serious injury but was left "understandably shaken".
The fleeing driver is known to police and a number of enquiries are already underway to locate him, Spt Hassan said.
The incident comes as police are reminding Aucklanders of the rules around alert level 3.
Two men were issued warnings in Sandringham after setting up a roadside vegetable stall on Wednesday.
"This market place was not displaying a QR code, the stall operators were not wearing PPE and were not equipped to provide contactless service to customers," said Spt Hassan.
She said police were also aware of a video circulating online showing an interaction between two officers and a woman in Browns Bay, who is reported to have cut tape off a playground to allow her children to play on it on Thursday afternoon.
"Police will be following up with the woman and further action cannot be ruled out in relation to this incident."
Despite the incidents, Spt Hasan said "overall, our community has been understanding and cooperative around the recent alert level 3 restrictions".
Between 6am on Sunday February 28 and 6pm Wednesday March 3 police received 917 notifications of possible breaches.
Between 6am on Sunday until 6pm on Thursday, police had processed 83,703 vehicles through the 10 checkpoints spread out across north and south Auckland. Of those, 358 vehicles had been turned away at northern checkpoints and 899 at southern checkpoints.
