Forty police at Alpine resorts to check test, entry requirements

Deputy Police Commissioner Rick Nugent, giving an update on border controls, said there was a 98 per cent compliance rate.

"We have issued a number of fines - it's around a handful a day," he said.

"Sometimes people have been in one area and turned around ... and try and come into another area, and they've made no attempt to get the permit ... they are fined.

"We commenced the operation at the border on the 26th of June, with 350 police.

"There are six semi-permanent checkpoints along the NSW border, three of those have the booze-bus set-up ... and a good use of automatic number plate recognition.

"We have considerably less traffic crossing into Victoria; the main traffic is border communities, emergency vehicles and freight."

IN OTHER NEWS:

Since border patrols commenced, police have checked 76,630 people along state borders or on major routes near the border.

The majority of checks (60,793) were conducted at alcohol and drug testing bus locations, with the remainder (15,837) undertaken by mobile patrol units.

Deputy Commissioner Nugent said the current border controls were like the ring of steel in terms of the thinking behind it.

His rhetoric aligned with that of the government since the beginning of the NSW outbreak, noting the impact on Albury-Wodonga and other border towns was significant if a hard border was put in place.

"When 98 per cent of the cars being checked are the locals, we just look another ways in which we might be able to ensure compliance," he said.

"Hence, this operation.

"So far, we've been able to leave the specialist areas (of Victoria Police) to continue with their specialist work.

"In the past, along the border with a fixed and permanent (border checkpoint) ... we had people from crime command ... criminal investigation units ... this time, they're from road policing commands and all of our front-line police stations.

"It is tight though, 1300 police is a lot of police."