Compliance complaints begin to roll in
Police, DA field hundreds of calls about COVID-19 order violations
SAN JOSE » Kids playing in a front yard. People working on cars in driveways. Some teens on scooters.
In one case, “neighbors standing outside of their house, showing signs of COVID-19.”
These are some of the calls that have flooded into San Jose police and the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office to report possible violations of the shelter-in-place orders in response to the coronavirus pandemic. They have fielded nearly 3,000 combined complaints about individuals, businesses and churches.
In many instances, by the time officers arrived the reported activity was gone, but hundreds of warnings also have been issued. San Jose police have issued three misdemeanor citations, for noncompliant businesses that already were given warnings, and none based on social distancing claims.
For San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia, it embodies the stillgray enforcement directives that his department and other police agencies have been tasked with carrying out since mid-March.
“As we’re hearing about these orders in real time, we have to figure out enforcement on the fly,” Garcia said. “There has to be ed
ucation to our community with regards to what is realistic with enforcement and what isn’t. Otherwise, we’re going to be left holding the bag if we’re not careful in how we enforce these regulations.”
From March 17, when the first order went into effect, to Wednesday, San Jose police received 703 reports calling out what they saw as nonessential businesses or construction still in operation, or gatherings that did not adhere to social distancing guidelines, according to department figures.
The second week of that period yielded 53 calls about people gathering at parks or schools, 222 calls about businesses, five calls about large parties and 11 calls involving churches. On Wednesday, the first day of the extended order that introduced further restrictions, police got 30 calls regarding questionable construction and nine calls about people continuing to gather in parks.
In a report given to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors earlier this week, District Attorney Jeff Rosen said his office has fielded more than 2,000 calls since establishing a hotline and email address for residents to report violations.
He told this news organization that the majority involved complaints about gatherings, many of which had disappeared by the time someone could go out and verify it.
Three main silos of violations have emerged: The first category deals with nonessential businesses and construction. In most cases, that has been fairly binary: Either you’re on the list of essential businesses or construction work or you’re not.
The second involves gatherings that are in clear violation of the order: large parties, churches still hosting congregations, large soccer pickup games at the park.
The third group, potential social distancing and gathering violations, poses the most challenges in rooting out because of the latitude provided in the order for outdoor recreation, officials say. Some of the more granular rules of the order require that activities using shared sports equipment — like soccer balls and basketballs — occur only within members of the same household.
Garcia said he has posed these questions to the City Manager’s Office, who he described as having offered “tremendous leadership” and clarity with the discretionary voids the order left to cities to interpret. City Manager Dave Sykes said he specifically doesn’t want a situation in which officers are interrogating residents unnecessarily.
“We can’t have officers having to do some sort of interview of people in the park, to determine they’re from same family or same household,” Sykes said.
A misdemeanor citation for a violation of the order carries potential jail time, a fine and community service. Garcia said he hopes that as residents get a sense of what is readily enforceable, they might ease up on reporting less concrete violations and save their calls for clear risks.
“Let’s concentrate on the steak and not the peas,” he said. “There’s the letter of the law and the spirit of the law, and we want to practice the spirit.”
City of San Jose parks remain a source of lingering questions given that people still are allowed to be outside for recreation. Closures have been ordered for “high-touch” recreational facilities and equipment “including, but not limited to, playgrounds, outdoor gym equipment, picnic areas, dog parks and barbecue areas,” but parks are still open. Just a day into the new restrictions, San Jose responded to more than a dozen calls about people playing at community centers, parks and school fields.
Sykes said parks will remain open and that he appreciates that people cooped up in their homes need time to be outdoors and get fresh air. But he said that could change if violations intensify, and that will hinge on people minding the purpose of the stay-at-home orders rather than focusing on the exemptions.
“We really can’t see gatherings and groups in parks,” he said. “We would rather see isolated activity and exercise, and individual enjoyment of the park, instead of group settings.”
The broader idea was reinforced Friday in an open letter from the Big Cities Health Coalition, consisting of 30 major urban public health departments, including those of Santa Clara, Alameda and San Francisco counties.
“Stay home for yourselves. Stay home for your family and loved ones. Stay home for your friends. Stay home for your community. Stay home for the health and prosperity of your country,” the letter reads. “We understand that what we are asking of you is not easy. We know that for many of you, sounding this alarm may cause fear and anxiety. But, we must.”