Tempe chief says police couldn’t be expected to have pandemic playbook
Apr 22, 2020, 8:10 AM
(AP Photo)
TEMPE, Ariz. – Should we have expected police to have a “pandemic playbook” for the coronavirus?
Tempe Police consulted its 10-year-old manual from the Police Executive Research Forum.
“Many of us took that off the shelf and attempted to apply it now, but it wasn’t what we needed because the environment has changed so significantly,” Chief Sylvia Moir said.
In a webinar sponsored by ASU’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, the School of Social Work and the Morrison Institute for Public Policy, Moir said few police departments worldwide may have had pandemic plans.
Now they’re forming a “mosaic” of information and experiences to “piece them together to now perform and serve during this unparalled crisis.”
However, the chief says Tempe used its plans for “continuity of operations in a mass disaster.”
When it comes to personal protective equipment for police, Moir says a commander started sourcing it and spreading it amongst the precincts so officers had equal access to it without endangering their health.
Moir added the commander did this in December.
Also in this webinar, the moderator asked if police should be enforcing social distancing and stay-at-home orders.
The question was timely, given the protest with nearly 1,000 people at the Arizona Capitol demanding Gov. Doug Ducey remove those rules.
ASU criminal justice professor Charles Katz says police should first be communicators through social media and other electronic means to their communities.
“Getting the public to engage at the stay-at-home orders voluntarily. By the time you have to use police force, we’ve already lost,” he said.
He suggested police could ticket or arrest repeat offenders instead.
“The first line of defense is police leadership having positive interactions with faith-based leaders, community leaders, working with those folks to make sure that public events aren’t being held,” Katz said.
Bob Robson, another ASU criminal justice professor, says police must play a supportive role of public health officials in a pandemic.
“Police have done really well across the country in letting this stay as a health emergency,” he said.
So, public health must lead the charge and push the message to “stop the spread” of COVID-19, which Robson says has been happening.
He also doesn’t think state troopers should stop people from crossing state lines in order to stop the spread, for fear of constitutional violations.
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