Policing the use of the QR code

is apparently the latest list of things that are going to be added to those that our police are expected to do. 

The Chief Medical Officer has become concerned about the number of people not doing this and, with others, has decided that the police need to be out and about and checking on the use of the QR code. Apparently there will be "plain clothes" police as well as those in uniform doing just that.

Fine. Just make it possible. 

I went into the shopping centre yesterday.  I went to the chemist. There are QR codes to scan at the entrance. There is no means of signing in manually. You need to ask.

I went from there to the supermarket and bought some extra milk. Ah yes, a single QR code to scan. There is no means of signing in manually. You need to ask. The answer there is more likely to be a sigh and "Why are you bothering Cat?"

I went to the greengrocer. There was nothing to be seen at all - not even a QR code. 

I went to the library. There is a QR code at all the doors but no means of signing in manually. The library could however trace anyone who borrowed something relatively easily because it is all on computer. It is the people who do not borrow something they should be concerned about. 

All this use of a QR code is, as I have said elsewhere, dependent on having a phone that is capable of scanning the code. By no means everyone I know has one like that. The "app" itself may be "free" but using it requires more than that.

It seems to me that if the government wishes to be able to contact trace people rapidly then they have to make it easy for them to comply. The first concern should be to see that QR codes are readily available for everyone to see and that manual sign in sheets are also readily available without having to ask for them. Those manual sign in sheets are a worry anyway. They are far from secure with respect to data. 

Perhaps it is time for us all to have a little QR code reader placed under our skin?