Police adjust under COVID

“It’s just a really bad deal for everybody and everything everywhere.”

Dunkirk police chief Dane Mumbower summed up the scope of COVID-19. Though the threat of the virus is immense, county police and fire departments still have to do their jobs.

Complications are multiplied for Jay County Sheriff Dwane Ford and the county jail, which houses around 70 inmates. Prisons and jails have proven to be extremely susceptible to the virus. Marion Correctional Institute in Ohio had over 1,800 inmates test positive for COVID-19.

Because of inmates close proximity to one another, the risk of transmitting the virus is high.

The sheriff’s office is making fewer arrests to combat the spread of disease, Ford said. For those charged with most non-violent misdemeanors and drug-related Level 6 felonies, court summons are being issued instead of them being arrested.

Their information is still being sent to the county’s prosecutors office and warrants are still being issued, Ford said. Those charged with violent offenses and higher level felonies are still being brought into the jail, however.

Those charged with drunk driving are also still being arrested and brought in to the jail, though they are being sped through the process to keep their contact with officers and other inmates limited, Ford said.

The sheriff’s office is still taking complaints, patrolling and investigating crimes. His officers haven’t been pulling over as many vehicles, however.

Ford and his officers have also been settling disputes and complaints over the phone if possible, he said, something Portland Police Chief Nathan Springer also said his department has been doing.

“It’s been a learning curve for us,” Springer said.

The department has received “tremendously” fewer calls since the pandemic began, he added, and it is also conducting fewer traffic stops.

Luckily, the department already had plenty of masks for when officers have to go into areas known to have drugs or other chemicals present, Springer said.

Portland Fire Chief Mike Weitzel said fire and EMT runs have decreased, in part because everybody is staying home. He said traffic accidents have also go down since vehicles aren’t be utilized as often.

Because of its small size, Mumbower pointed out that one COVID-19 infection could “wipe out” or temporarily shut down Dunkirk’s police department.

To avoid that possibility, Mumbower said the department is constantly employing sanitation efforts and officers are wearings masks and gloves while at work. The department has an ample supply of personal protective equipment and keeps full body suits ready in case officers have to go to an area that is known to be infected.

He said he realized the department needed to change a lot of what it does after a suspect was brought to a station for an interview. That suspect began coughing, falsely claiming he had the virus.

Mumbower said it made him realize they had to reorganize the interview room to keep officers far away from suspects, in addition to following other social distancing guidelines.

Nationally there’s a concern that, with so many staying home, child abuse and domestic violence cases will increase. That hasn’t been the case so far in Dunkirk, Mumbower said. Drug- and alcohol-related crimes have also stayed around the same since before the viral outbreak, he said.

Overall Mumbower said Jay County is “very lucky” to only have 17 confirmed cases. Springer added that residents are taking the state’s stay-at-home order seriously, which could explain the county’s relatively low number of confirmed cases.