Students from Northumbria and Newcastle universities have expressed concern over the handling of “Operation Oak” this term as well as Newcastle City Council’s use of “Covid marshals” in Jesmond and other student areas.

Working with Northumbria Police, the two universities provide funding of around £125,000 each year to support community policing, including Operation Oak, in areas of the city with high student populations, including Jesmond, Sandyford, Heaton and Ouseburn. Extra patrols were added this term so that officers could be on duty every night until the end of the Christmas period.

The original purpose of Operation Oak patrols was to reduce the incidence of anti-social behaviour. But in recent weeks, the night-time patrols have also been policing students who may be breaking coronavirus restrictions. Some students have complained of heavy-handed tactics by police officers and Covid marshals, who are appointed by Newcastle City Council, but funded by central government.

Melanie Anderson, parent of Northumbria University law student Luke Anderson, posted to Twitter a video of police officers seeking to enter his Jesmond home in order to count the number of people inside.

@emmakennytv @allisonpearson @JuliaHB1 Is this a free country? This is what students in Newcastle have to contend with every weekend. They are paying over £9000 to be treated like criminals. Police, 6 of them, wanting access to count them. I despair. Criminals must be laughing pic.twitter.com/WuNK8zZvzl

— meanderson (@melanie1210) November 28, 2020

Anderson’s mother says she believes officers have been unfairly targeting students who, she says, have done nothing wrong and “don’t deserve it”.

Following the posting of this video on Twitter, Anderson was interviewed on Talk Radio. He told JesmondLocal he had witnessed other incidents involving police. On one occasion, he says police “surrounded the house pretty much, they came in from the back as well. We said we didn’t want them to come in but about five of them pushed the door in.

“On another occasion we had about six police officers tell us they had power to come in our house again. And they came in and counted everybody and then just left again,” said Anderson, who says he does not believe that police have legal authority to enter homes in this way.

Anderson says he also has footage of Covid marshals shining lights through his window. He says Northumbria University informed him it had received a report of anti-social behaviour at his house but it has advised him only to contact Phoenix Security (which employs Covid marshals) or the police.

According to a recent survey conducted by The Courier student newspaper at Newcastle University, more than three quarters of students who have had some kind of dealing with a Covid marshal said they found the interaction uncomfortable. Of those who had encountered a police officer in recent week, more than half said they found the interaction uncomfortable.

Concern about students being unfairly targeted or treated was raised in October when sabbatical officers from Newcastle and Northumbria student unions met with Northumbria Police.

Lauren Bell, vice president for activities at Northumbria University, suggested during the meeting that policing “has been done in a rather intimidating way. And that’s what has frightened some students, when they’ve not done anything wrong.”

In response, Northumbria Police chief inspector Stephen Wykes said: ‘I do want to provide some reassurance that the policing response that your community is experiencing in terms of the student community, is absolutely replicated in every other part of Newcastle and Gateshead.”

Marc Lintern, director of student experience at Newcastle University, told JesmondLocal: “We are aware that there has been intimidation.”

He explained that while the university funds Operation Oak, it does not fund Covid marshals. However Lintern said that the university is seeking a a meeting between the police, city council, the universities and student unions, “because we don’t want this to happen again in the new year. Ultimately we want students and permanent residents to get on, and we want them to feel supported and not intimidated.”

Northumbria Police did not respond to our requests for a comment, but in a statement given to The Courier, Northumbria Police cited “unprecedented times” to explain its power to enter homes to verify compliance with restrictions and insisted that “all members of the public are treated the same.

“Many student properties have large numbers of residents and this can be mistaken for a party by those who report breaches to police. Officers are duty bound to investigate those concerns and, as a result of those reports, we have disrupted a number of parties and issued a number of fines.”