East Point police change tactics during coronavirus
No officers infected as agency limits arrests, jail population during pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic has prompted the East Point Police Department to change how it interacts with the public, take steps to protect the health of officers and close its jail to arrestees from neighboring cities.
But the law enforcement agency has had no reported cases of coronavirus among officers or people held at the city jail, according to Chief Tommy Gardner. One officer showed signs of the virus and was hospitalized, but was diagnosed with double pneumonia. Their spouse, also an officer, was quarantined for 14 days as was a reserve officer who was exposed to the virus, he added.
“It has had an impact on both the police and fire departments,” Gardner said Friday. “We want to provide the best services to our citizens and at the same time we have to protect them.”
During the pandemic, Gardner said officers are giving people warnings if they violate the city’s curfew and are instructed to issue citations to nonviolent offenders wherever possible.
“When we can write people citations, we simply write people citations on local ordinances. Certainly, we are arresting people if they are doing a felony,” he said.
The effort is to limit close contact officers have with other people, as well as limit the number of people housed in the city jail. The police department is also taking incident reports over the phone when possible and when officers are dispatched to a location, they will remain outside of a residence or business and talk to people while they are inside.
Officers are also sanitizing their patrol cars after transporting anyone to the city jail, and staff inside the jail are wearing gloves and face masks.
“We had to change some of the things we do as a department because the more people you bring into your system, certainly the more possibility of you being impacted by this thing,” Gardner said.
East Point’s jail can house about 150 people, but the population is generally about 50, he said.
The facility also houses people arrested by police agencies in College Park, Fairburn, Hapeville and South Fulton but the city stopped accepting those when the pandemic started.
For now, the city jail is also limiting each cell to one person.
Gardner said the call volume to the department has remained about the same during the pandemic, though there’s been a slight uptick in domestic violence incidents and a drop off in traffic accidents.
He also said that overall, residents are abiding by the city’s 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew. For those that aren’t, Gardner said officers are “proactively engaging them” and encouraging them to head home.
“I drove around the city last night. It was a ghost city. I think people are taking this thing seriously,” he said.
City officials said earlier this week that they’ve compiled a list of 200 seniors to monitor during the pandemic. Gardner said one resident called him personally to provide a list of 20 seniors in her neighborhood that might need assistance. And if she isn’t able to call them for a wellness check, officers will step in and help, he said.
“That’s how we are as a department,” Gardner said. “We are going to get through this thing together as a city.”
Check out all the coverage of how the coronavirus pandemic is impacting East Point.