As Sonoma County begins to hit the two-week mark of sheltering in place, local jurisdictions are taking an educational approach to enforcement.
“We’ve asked the public to not put our officers in the position to have to take enforcement action,” said Ken Savano, Petaluma police chief and Sonoma County Law Enforcement Chiefs Association (SCLECA) president.
When asked about local enforcement of the county’s shelter in place order, Sebastopol’s acting Police Chief Greg DeVore defaulted to Savano because of his position as president of the SCLECA.
“For businesses or practices or activities that have been called into question, we’ve agreed as a group to let those be vetted out by the health department,” Savano said. “So should there be an activity or practice that’s jeopardizing public health … they would reach out to law enforcement depending on jurisdiction.”
Savano said that thus far, local police chiefs have seen “tremendous compliance with the community.”
In situations where businesses have been operating outside of the shelter-in-place order, once departments have given them information about the importance of the order, they’ve voluntarily complied.
“The voluntary compliance has been an absolute,” Savano said.
When asked about its enforcement plans, two north county departments, Cloverdale and Healdsburg, both echoed Savano’s sentiment.
“Just like the rest of Sonoma County, we are taking an education/voluntary compliance approach,” said Healdsburg Police Chief Kevin Burke. “However, we take the Health Officer’s order very seriously, and we are prepared to enforce the order if it comes to our attention that a business or individual is in violation.”
Burke said that the Healdsburg Police Department has investigated some complaints related to people violating the order, but that none of them were substantiated following an investigation.
“We are very grateful as it looks like the Healdsburg community understands the importance of the order and is voluntarily abiding by it,” he said.
In Cloverdale, some local businesses have been caught not complying to the order. Once the department received calls from people notifying them of the non-essential businesses that were violating the order, they were educated and shut down their operations, Cloverdale Police Chief Jason Ferguson said.
“Police have taken a position of ‘educate the public’ in dealing with the shelter-in-place order and try to enforce at the lowest level possible to include, forwarding complaints to the public health department,” Ferguson said.
Both Healdsburg and Cloverdale police departments said that they’ve experienced a drop-off in number of calls during the shelter in place order, and Savano said that he’s seen similar patterns across local jurisdictions.
When asked if departments are anticipating restlessness among community members as the shelter in place order continues, both Ferguson and Burke stressed that they hoped the urgency and importance of the order will take precedence over the possible desire to go out.
“Regardless of whether the order is extended, it’s extremely important community members adhere to the order to help in preventing further spread of the virus,” Ferguson said. “Although I understand the impacts to local businesses and challenges within our community, I am seeking voluntary compliance so that we can focus our efforts on priority law enforcement responsibilities.”
“As the order continues, we anticipate and hope that people will continue to understand the importance of the order and will respect its requirements,” Burke said. “We do have staff in place to respond to emergencies and enforce the order. However, taking officers away from being available for emergencies and having them contact businesses or individuals who violate the order will place the health of our officers at risk and jeopardize our ability to provide emergency police services. We are counting on our community to not let that happen as we are all in this challenging situation together.”
In southern Sonoma County, Rohnert Park announced Friday morning, March 27, that it would be taking a more proactive approach to enforcement by issuing citations for non-essential businesses who have remained open, as well as citations to people in public parks. As of press time, Rohnert Park was the only jurisdiction in the county to publicly state that it plans to issue citations.
