Police to hand flyers to violators of virus order
Cops will hand out info about when residents can leave
While driving to join his officers who were responding to a car accident Monday, Orlando police Chief Orlando Rolón said he was rear-ended after stopping at a traffic light.
Amid a county-wide stayat-home order, during which citizens are only allowed to leave home for essential tasks, Rolón said the incident “goes to show that, you know, there are people that are out and about.”
“Our officers being exposed to extra car accidents, being exposed to unnecessary contact with someone who maybe got in an argument with someone while they were out and about — we don’t need that,” Rolón said at a news conference Tuesday.
To help make the public aware of the county mandate, which was announced last week by Orange Mayor Jerry Demings, Orlando officers will be armed with flyers that lay out what residents can and cannot leave their homes for.
Residents can go to the grocery store, the doctor’s office or exercise outside while maintaining six feet from others, the flyer says. But if it’s not urgent, people should avoid visiting friends and family.
Officers will hand them out to those who they see are violating the order. The agency has already gotten calls informing them of some large gatherings that appeared to go against the mandate, Rolón said.
“If [officers] see kids playing basketball on the basketball court, that may be an ideal situation,” Rolón said.
But for people who officers encounter “blatantly trying to do their best to violate the orders, then… we do have the power to make an arrest and we will do that if we have to,” he said.
The agency’s staffing remains robust as school resource officers have moved to other roles throughout the city and officers who had been quarantined are back to work, he said. Calls for service are also down county-wide, which has prevented the agency from being stretched thin.
Rolón said officers have continued to make “significant arrests, especially when it comes to drug activity” during the pandemic.
“So for the criminal element that may think, hey, the Orlando Police Department or law enforcement in general is not going to be proactive in stopping that type of activity, they’re mistaken,” Rolón said.