Moscow police officers start their shifts by sanitizing their work areas and their “hot cars,” the patrol vehicles officers swap as they end their workdays.
“Because you don’t know on the shift before you what happened or who they dealt with or where they were,” Moscow Police Cpl. Joe Sieverding said.
The new cleaning routine is not the only change the Moscow Police Department has made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since the pandemic crept into the Palouse, Moscow police officers try to handle as many calls from residents over the phone as possible. MPD Chief James Fry said the department provides officers with personal protective equipment (PPE), officers give citations to some people they’d typically arrest and officers limit the face-to-face interactions they have with residents.
But some situations, like domestic disputes, make it nearly impossible for officers to social distance from residents, MPD Patrol Sgt. Anthony Dahlinger said.
Sieverding said that means officers maintain social distancing between each other.
“When we’re all dealing with different people in different areas throughout the day, you don’t know if other officers are infected or not, so we try to keep our social distance,” Sieverding said.
When Idaho entered phase two of its reopening last Friday, MPD Chief James Fry said the department’s safety practices didn’t change much. He said officers will still follow some of their safety precautions in phase three of Idaho’s reopening, which is slated for May 30 and would allow public gatherings of up to 50 people.
“Just because the state opens, that doesn’t mean the total threat of the virus is gone,” Fry said. “We’re still going to follow some of our practices just to make sure the virus doesn’t see an uptick.”
Gov. Brad Little’s stay-at-home order became a stay healthy order on May 1 in the first phase of Idaho’s reopening. Among other regulations, the updated order for phase two discourages people from having gatherings of more than 10 people and requires that bars, nightclubs and large venues remain closed. People who violate the order can be charged with a misdemeanor, which Little’s initial stay-at-home order also allowed for.
Since the outset of the order, Moscow police have focused on educating people who violate the order rather than citing them. Fry said MPD is continuing that strategy throughout the stay-healthy order, but he said repeat offenders may be cited.
“We’ll continue with (education). It falls right in line with our community policing philosophy,” Fry said. “That’s not to say that at some point, if something were to happen, and continual warnings were given, that a citation might be given. But we typically try to educate first and use enforcement as a last option.”
Fry said Moscow police regularly received complaints about violations of Gov. Little’s stay-at-home and stay healthy orders throughout the past two months. Between April 21 and May 5 — as the state entered phase 1 of reopening — MPD received 14 reports of people allegedly violating the governor’s order, according to a public record request The Argonaut filed. Reports haven’t increased since the state began lifting certain pandemic-related restrictions on May 1, Fry said.
The safety measures Moscow police take for COVID-19 haven’t changed much about how officers do their job, Dahlinger said.
Before COVID-19, Moscow police used discretion to decide if they should educate someone about an issue, ticket them or arrest them. The pandemic brought a new risk and new precautions to their work, but Dahlinger said police know they’re in a risky field.
“Law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every single day, in more ways than one. And there’s a lot more illnesses out there than just COVID,” Dahlinger said. “We’ve been trained for years on using protective equipment and protecting ourselves against many other illnesses that are life threatening.”
Sieverding, who has been a police officer for eight years, said he knows being a first responder is risky. He said when he responds in-person to calls, people have been generally safe about social distancing. He’s only had to deny a few offers for handshakes.
But he still worries about exposing his family.
“On a personal level, you think about ‘I’m out here working, exposing myself to people I don’t know, and I could potentially take that home to my family.’ That’s something that concerns me obviously because it’s my family,” Sieverding said. “But obviously as a first responder, you make a lot of sacrifices in the job, and that’s one of the major ones.”
Throughout the day, Sieverding said he does what’s recommended — washing his hands, using hand sanitizer and wearing PPE when needed. When he gets home from a shift, he usually hops in the shower.
“It’s scary, but I try to do the best I can,” Sieverding said.
Kyle Pfannenstiel can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @pfannyyy