SJPD adopts new strategies to police city
There’s no working from home for officers, so super vigilance is key
SAN JOSE >> By this point, there has been no shortage of hearing the recommendations of public health officials to avoid physical contact with people whenever possible, and specifically to practice social distancing, to decrease the spread of the coronavirus.
For officers in the San Jose Police Department, that’s often not feasible. It’s hard to make an arrest without grasping someone, or to render potentially life-saving aid without getting up close.
And there’s no work-from-home model when your job is to protect the Bay Area’s largest city, nestled in the county that has the highest known occurrence of COVID-19 in the state.
“Our men and women cannot telecommute. They will rise to the adversity,” Police Chief Eddie
Garcia said. “We can’t avoid contact. We don’t have that luxury. We can limit contact, but we can’t eliminate it. We have to operate under realistic expectations.”
So what does policing look like in an era when any physical proximity is a health risk? For starters, it means being exceptionally mindful of even the most remote possibility of exposure to the virus.
Dave Tindall, deputy chief overseeing the patrol division, said that since the emergence of the coronavirus in the United States, officers have been instructed to meticulously document any time they have even slight symptoms resembling those associated with the virus — cough, fever and respiratory distress.
Officers are reporting twice a day to their supervisors to log their health.
“We’re documenting even potential exposure,” Tindall said. “We want to do everything we can so they don’t take it home with them as well.”
It’s a particularly resonant concern in light of the news last week that 80 San Jose firefighters were potentially exposed to COVID-19, and that to date,
“Some of these things may seem trivial, but our people know they have to come to work in times like these. And they need to know we have a plan for them. We’ve been through a lot as a police department, and it’s going to take more than coronavirus to bring us down.” — Police Chief Eddie Garcia
eight have been confirmed to have acquired the infection from somewhere in the community.
The firefighters union confirmed that family members of the ill firefighters tested positive for the virus, too. There have been no confirmed cases of San Jose police officers contracting the virus.
Fatefully, the police department has been getting ready for this for weeks, with the support of the city manager’s office.
Deputy Chief Tommy
Troy led an early department movement to stock up on antiviral wipes and other items, making him look particularly prescient today, when empty store shelves are a common sight.
Officers were equipped with masks and goggles for instances when they have to encounter someone who appears to be ill.
Troy also instituted training before the pandemic was declared to ensure officers could recognize the virus symptoms.
“Getting ahead was a big deal for us,” Troy said. “Early on, people rolled their eyes, but we got them up to speed. Officers don’t have a choice. We have to engage with the community, and closer than 6 feet.”
Tindall said officers are instructed to practice social distancing “the best they can.”
So in nonemergency calls, instead of asking to enter a home, they might ask a reporting party to come outside, or into a more open space like a garage.
“There are emergency calls where they don’t have to go into a house, and there are calls where they have no choice, and if someone has COVID-19, they have COVID-19,” Tindall said.
Hence the twice-daily health checks and reports, and increased deep-cleaning of patrol vehicles after shifts, and after taking people to jail, he added.
The other big challenge for the department is how to keep a police force together while also keeping the officers apart.
So those traditional briefings with upward of 100 officers in a room? Gone. Now supervisors get briefed, then they meet their officers in the field for one-on-one updates.
Officers are expected to rely more on their in-vehicle computer terminals, and more often than before, they’ll head into the field without spending too much time in headquarters, if at all.
They’re being allowed to wear their alternate cotton uniforms, because they can be washed at home, rather than the conventional blues, which have to be dry cleaned.
There have been some sacrifices, chief among them the community meetings, whether in an auditorium or at coffee shops, which are canceled for the time being. Large events, per the county decree, are prohibited, and so they’re pulling venue permits for concerts and similar events.
Garcia acknowledges that the new protocols might seem like modest adjustments, but they revolve around the idea that for the police department, and other first responders, there is no closing up shop.
“Some of these things may seem trivial, but our people know they have to come to work in times like these. And they need to know we have a plan for them,” he said.
“We’ve been through a lot as a police department, and it’s going to take more than coronavirus to bring us down.”