COVID-19’s impact on law enforcement

Summit county deputy sheriff Ryan Jones is use to adapting quickly to new environments. As a former corrections officer and a current Sgt. in the Ohio National Guard, preparing yourself for any situation is part of the job. Since April 20, 2020, Jones’ first day as a deputy sheriff, his job has been full of surprises. With new reports of coronavirus increasing everyday and expectation of worsening numbers, the safety of workers in public services has been a major topic. Jones discusses how law enforcement is navigating their duties during this pandemic.

Q: Can you explain to me what your job as a deputy sheriff entails?

RJ: My job is to follow the law. I’m basically a public servant. I feel like the title of cop or deputy sheriff, people look at it wrong, but we’re here to serve the public. No matter if it’s something as, helping someone get across the street, or you’re helping someone get their cat off a tree, or you see someone breaking the law…it’s various things that we do as police officers for public service.

Q: Can you tell me how you got into law enforcement?

RJ: Well, being in the military, in a military police company everybody around me is always a cop or a corrections officer, so I kind of aspire to be a cop, you know, as coming up through the ranks and here I am now.  I’ve been in law enforcement for seven years, was a corrections officer for a while and now I’m a police officer.

Q: What precautions have you seen take place at your job since COVID-19 happened that weren’t there before?

RJ: The precautions we’ve been taken since COVID-19 when people are booked into the jail, we quarantine that detainee for 14 days and afterward, their temperature gets taken three to four times a day. So, you know we keep a very close eye on individuals whenever they do come into the jail when they’re apprehended and anything besides that, we definitely keep hand sanitizer, masks and everything we can. There’s no PPE [personal protective equipment] to help assist ourselves to go against COVID-19, you have to do your best. Now I can’t speak for everybody, but you know, if you’re going through a situation where you have to arrest somebody you can’t just say ‘pause, let me throw my mask and gloves on.’ You’re kind of more risk at that moment. You know that you’re probably dealing with someone, under arrest… it’s like more of the unknown. So even when we’re doing this, we still take the right precautions to make sure that we’re not spreading it all over the county. So far we have zero positive cases inside the jail, that I’m aware of.

Q: Are there any new policies that have been made that have made your job difficult or uncomfortable? For example, like the mandatory facemask wearing or like, finding a decent daycare service or a school that maintains social distancing?

RJ: It didn’t make my job difficult. No matter what you do in this profession, you have to be willing to adapt to the world’s changes. The world changes every day and not just every day, but every year as time goes on. You have to be willing to adapt no matter what you go through. I don’t think it makes job any more difficult than what is has to be. At the same time, you have to be mindful about the loved ones at home and try to be careful as much as possible. So it actually makes you very cautious and more safe and just more aware of the situation because everyone has a grandmother at home or kids or a wife or whatnot.

Q: Like any new policies, there’s going to be some resistance. Have you ever had to end or break up a gathering or arrest people for not abiding by the 10-person limit or social distancing?

RJ: No. I haven’t had to arrest someone or even heard of anyone getting arrested for that at our department at all. 

Q: Do you see an issue of people resisting the social distancing rules or non-mandatory face masks worsening or becoming better?

RJ: I see more fines happening in the future for people not wanting to obey policies, but that will eventually die down.

Q: Is there anything else you want to add about being in law enforcement and dealing with COVID-19?

RJ: I think just overall, each department and each community just need to work with each other to be able to do what they can to social distance the best that they can. And it’s not just hard on the community, it’s hard on police officers as well. It’s a lot of cops that had to stop a lot of things like, cops that work in schools or whatnot, you know, they enjoy being around children. So COVID-19 affected the community as a whole and a lot of people are just not aware how. You know, because kids got people they look up to and some officers they look up to at the schools, or you know, there’s like, officers that probably volunteer for certain things like the homeless shelter or whatnot, but they’re not able to do everything that they want to do because of COVID-19, so a lot of things got put on hold and affected a widespread of the community.