Victoria Police launched Operation Sentinel to enforce government restrictions put in place to stop the spread of coronavirus in March.

Senior Sergeant Peter McCormick has been staffing the shifts in this region - encompassing Ballarat, Moorabool, Golden Plains, Pyrenees and Hepburn - and said it had been a demanding and challenging period.

"Sentinel has been a challenge for us because it's an additional duty - it's another job that the members have to do," the more than 40-year police veteran said.

Mostly staffed by uniform members, the operation has involved three patrolling units taking on Sentinel duties across the region each shift.

Senior Sergeant McCormick said the members tasked with the shifts had been doing a "sterling job", especially given that they have concurrently continued with their normal response roles.

"I suppose that has been the biggest challenge - the members will hear a job come up and whilst they are tasked to Sentinel and that's their primary role, they're always going to respond to family violence incidents and that sort of thing too."

This has meant these frontline members have had a lot on their plates, with less time to complete paperwork and other administrative tasks.

"Their workload has really increased but there has been no grumbling or gripes."

The operation has been run from a state level, with police divisions initially allocated tasks to complete from police headquarters in Melbourne - in line with the restrictions and intelligence that was gathered.

These duties included conducting spot checks on homes to ensure people who were meant to be isolating were doing so. With 118 cases recorded across the region this year (none currently active), police were kept busy.

Senior Sergeant McCormick said the "vast majority" of people and families who were legally obliged to isolate in the region did so, while they were also largely appreciative of police checking in on them - understanding that it was for the safety of the wider community.

"In the rural environments you'd get to the front gate and it would be locked with a big sign on it saying that they were home but isolating.

"So you know immediately know those people are trying to do the right thing."

He said people had generally been receptive to these checks and understood why they were being undertaken.

"There has been an appreciation that we're doing our job, our little bit, to make sure that they're doing their little bit to have the overall reduction in the spread."

Sentinel shifts also included checking that people were only leaving their homes for the four legal reasons - food and supplies, medical care and caregiving, exercise and work or education - when they were in place.

Through these shifts, police also focused on "keeping the peace" at supermarkets and shopping centres, when panic buying started occurring at the beginning of the pandemic.

Senior Sergeant McCormick said police had really tried to educate the community about restrictions and what they meant when they first came into force and when there have been other big changes since.

He said most people accepted the restrictions as necessary to reduce the spread of the virus and abided accordingly, but some people have not.

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"When there have been obvious breaches or people just being silly, we have enforced the directions because it's about the flow-on effect to the whole community," he said.

Police have also received thousands of calls from members of the public tipping them off about people who may be breaking the rules, which has also influenced the response.

According to Crime Statistics Agency Data, police issued 160 fines for coronavirus breaches across the region until June.

Throughout the year the police response has continued to adapt to consistently changing restrictions and new rules, such as mandatory mask-wearing.

"When we started it was very task-based but now it's more proactive patrolling and just getting out and talking to people," Senior Sergeant McCormick said, noting the focus had shifted to checking people were wearing masks, social distancing and that businesses were adhering to density limits.

With no active cases and the state now beginning to reopen, police are changing their focus to patrolling places people will gather this summer - such as licensed premises and camping grounds.

"People might start to relax too much or have too many people around to their house, so we will be patrolling for that.

With the significant number of resources that were directed to manning the vehicle checkpoint now freed up with it being dismantled on Monday, Senior Sergeant McCormick said these members could be tasked towards Sentinel patrols too.

"We think a lot of people from Melbourne will head bush and kick up their heels so there will be more numbers for us to keep track of," he said.

"So we will be continuing to look at further tasking with more people available to make sure everyone is doing the right thing."

Senior Sergeant McCormick is also the Municipal Emergency Response Coordinator for Ballarat, so he has attended weekly meetings with other agencies - including Ballarat Health Services, The City of Ballarat, Ballarat Community Health and the Department of Health and Human Services - to discuss the evolving response to the pandemic.

He said it had been a team effort but the amount of work that had been completed behind-the-scenes by these agencies had been "astronomical".

"Nobody will probably ever know how much work these agencies have put in to be on the front foot and put systems and processes in place for this region," he said.

"They jumped on and quelled outbreaks really quickly with these processes and have just done a mountain of work."

As the MERC, Senior Sergeant McCormick said work was being undertaken around how to respond to possible emergencies such as fires as floods in the next few months in a COVID-safe way.