Did this policewoman have the right to do this?

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I was watching a video on YouTube, which was from about a year ago, when the UK was in its first lockdown. The video was of a policewoman standing at a guy's front door telling him and his young children not to be playing outside in their backyard because of lockdown. She even threatened them with a fine, for being in their own backyard. They had nobody from other households there, just the people who lived there; a guy and 3 small kids. I don't know how big their backyard was but judging by their front yard, which was pretty big, it seemed like they probably had a standard family council estate house, which usually has a backyard with surrounding hedges or fences. It wasn't a community backyard, as those are mostly common in apartment buildings.

I think the policewoman had no right to stop a family being in their own backyard on a summer's day. Your backyard is your home too, lockdown or no lockdown, nobody should be forced to literally stay indoors if they have their own backyard. I scrolled through the comments and it seemed that half the commenters seemed to be on the policewoman's side, but I was on the guy's side. I put in the comments "how can they be spreading COVID just by playing in their own backyard?" and some clever dick replied "it's airborne". I KNOW that but for one thing they were outside and another thing is they weren't near their neighbours enough to spread it to them. This dad just wanted his kids to get fresh air, exercise and vitamin D.

After watching this video I got anxious about going out because even if you aren't breaking any rules there is still always going to be some sort of tyranny from a stubborn authority figure.

Not on private land she doesn't. She would have to get a court order to get a warrant before she is allowed on private land to arrest someone.
Apart from that, covid rules are not allowed to prevent anyone the freedom of walking on their own private land.

Where I live, it said on the TV one was not allowed to go outdoors. An elderly farmer and his wife thought it applied to them and they did not want to see their animals suffering so they both committed suicide. It was after that that they made sure tnat they clarified this point in my area, that everyone was allowed out in their own gardens and on their own land as they did not want anyone else to commit suicide under similar circumstances, as the government could easily be sued by relitives if the laws infringed on basic human rights. There are a few houses in Wales that still have outside toilets so how they can prevent people going outside I don't know!

No. It is not the law. She is wrong. It was a temporary act under emergency circumstances, but it does not prevent one from roaming ones own land. (Our Welsh government had to clarify that due to concerns about further suicides).

That's pretty sad about the couple MG but it is good that the government decided to clarify & could potentially be sued for not being clear enough. I do not know what things have been like in the UK with this pandemic because I live in the US but I do know about the US. In the US this pandemic has been used as a political ploy since the very beginning as an excuse to take away various individual rights & freedoms. Our country which was founded in the name of freedom sold out on that very freedom even more by taking some major steps forward to becoming a police state. I'm not attacking one side of the political spectrum, I am extremely disappointed & ashamed of both.

Getting back to the original topic, It would not surprise me if the policewoman Joe was talking about did technically have the legal right aka the legal authority to restrict individual families from using their own backyard. However having the legal authority to do something does NOT automatically mean that it is just & should be acceptable & the story sounds to me like it was not just & she should not of been allowed to do that.

This actually scared me of going out to work, because although I had a legit certificate that stated I was a key worker, I was still scared that I might have come across an arrogant cop like this who you just can't win with.

Reminds me of a random teacher at school who wouldn't let me go to my math class just because the bell system wasn't working, even though it was time for class. I showed her my watch to prove that it was time for class and that I needed to get to my class but she wouldn't have it and made me go outside.

It's as though these authority figures have been yelled at by their boss that they're not being authoritative enough so they want to prove themselves by picking on some innocent person who isn't exactly breaking any rules. That's what I think. Trouble is, it's not fair on the people they picked on.