Columbus police ask for public’s help to keep officers safe during coronavirus. Here’s how.
With a force currently staffed at around 450 sworn officers, Columbus police so far have had only a couple told to self-quarantine at home after showing flu-like symptoms during the COVID-19 outbreak.
They want to keep that number to a minimum, so they’re urging residents to avoid requesting face-to-face contacts with police for routine matters that can be handled over the telephone or the Internet.
“We’re still out there. The officers are still patrolling,” said Assistant Chief Gil Slouchick. “We’re still answering 911 calls, and we’re going to make that a priority, to keep answering 911 calls.”
But not every complaint requires an officer’s presence: For example, if a bicycle or lawnmower is stolen from a yard, with no witnesses and no evidence, that report can be made over the telephone to the departments report line, which is 706-225-3215, he said.
“We can take a basic report over the phone,” he said, and that report is just as valid as it would be had the officer gone to the scene, he said.
If a copy of the report is needed for insurance or other documentation, it should be available within 24 hours, and can be requested via email, Slouchick said. The email link is on the department’s website at www.columbusga.org/police, where visitors click on the tab labeled “Records/Reports.”
Those reports are free, for Columbus residents. To offer accident reports online, the city uses the service buycrash.com, which charges a fee.
Still the lobby of the Columbus Public Safety Center at 510 10th St. remains open, as does the police desk services window where residences may get copies of reports in person. It’s open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and the phone number is 706-653-3205. Often lines form there, however, so the recommended social distancing to prevent the virus’ spread would be difficult, under those circumstances.
Anyone going into the Public Safety Center’s more secure areas outside the lobby, such as for an interview or to be fingerprinted for a background check, will be screened for fever or other flu-like symptoms indicative of the novel coronavirus, though police have found laser thermometers are in short supply, the assistant chief said.
To try to maintain social distancing on patrol, officers called to a residence now avoid going inside, Slouchick said: “If you call an officer to your house, the officer may ask you to step outside. If he does, it’s not unusual.”
The officer is not trying to get anyone outside to conduct a search or arrest, only to maintain the six-foot minimum distancing recommended by the Centers for Disease Control, he said.
More common circumstances that would necessitate an officer’s going to the scene, other than violent crimes, would be a home or car break-in with evidence to be collected and documented, he said.
Other precautions police are taking during the COVID-19 emergency include holding their roll calls and briefings outside, in the open air, so they aren’t packed together in a conference room.
Also they’re using alcohol to sanitize patrol cars after transporting a suspect to jail or to the Public Safety Center for questioning, Slouchick said.
But they’re not slacking off, he added: Everyone’s coming to work, not only in patrol and the investigative bureau, but also in the 911 center and the record room and elsewhere to do jobs that can’t be done from home.
“People aren’t checking out sick,” he said. “They know what they’re facing, and they come to work and they do their jobs every day…. These officers that go out here every day and face the unknown, they’re facing the unknown on steroids now.”
While they face the unknown, they ask that everyone who can stay home do so.
“If you don’t have to be out, don’t go out,” Slouchick said.