How Police Policy Can Help ‘Flatten the Curve’
Less aggressive policing is safer for the public and officers alike.
The methods for stifling the rapid outbreak of COVID-19 to lessen the burden on the health care system —often called “flattening the curve” — have become well-known: improve personal hygiene, particularly by thorough hand-washing; avoid crowds and other gatherings of multiple people; and when a person cannot avoid contact with others, to maintain a social distance of at least six feet from one another.
These steps are sometimes easier said than done in everyday life, but they are nearly impossible in many of America’s jails.
As such, for the health of the inmates and the officers and employees who work there, responsibly reducing or otherwise limiting the number of individuals held in those facilities must be a public health priority. Although many government actors can affect this process, police departments can help flatten the curve by drastically reducing the number of people who end up in jail.
Responsibly reducing the number of individuals in America’s jails must be a public health priority.
Perhaps the first well-publicized cluster of infections in the United States was a senior living center in Kirkland, Washington. At least 40 residents, employees, and visitors to the center have died after contracting the virus, and almost 90 others are known to have been infected. The elderly are among the most susceptible to serious illness and death after infection, along with people who have chronic health problems like heart disease, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, and other preexisting conditions that can compromise immune systems. Putting all these factors in a facility where people are in close contact with one another, and the potential for a public health catastrophe become starkly clear.
The incarcerated are highly susceptible to COVID-19
Compared to the general public, individuals who are incarcerated tend to have more of those chronic health problems, often pre-dating their incarceration. Thus, while the average age of an inmate in any given facility is likely to be lower than a senior living center, a number of prisoners share heightened susceptibility to severe COVID-19 indications and other infections. Moreover, the sanitary conditions in many carceral facilities is substandard in the best of times, and now circumstances are becoming dire.
The American Civil Liberties Union and District of Columbia Public Defenders are suing to get inmates in D.C. jails better access to basic hygienic supplies like soap and toilet paper. The Philadelphia Inquirer described a cell block in a Pennsylvania facility where up to 60 inmates are “using the same rarely cleaned six toilets and showers, eating shoulder to shoulder, and sleeping at night in bunks so close together he could reach out and touch his cellmate on the other side.” And Chicago’s Cook County Jail is already home to one of the largest carceral COVID-19 outbreaks in the country, with nearly 300 confirmed cases as of Sunday.
Take people into custody only when necessary
Right now, police departments should only take people into custody as a last resort. A Superior Court judge in Washington, D.C. issued an order in March that allows local police to release offenders with a citation for a future court date rather hold them in pretrial detention. At the time of the order, the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) was still making many low-level arrests, but recent reports and anecdotal evidence suggest MPD is consciously reducing arrests.
While the crisis in New York City demands better compliance with public safety guidelines, jailing individuals for such violations only increases their likelihood of infection and thus further endangers public safety. Common sense dictates that, of all offenses, violations of stay-in-place orders and disregarding social distancing guidelines should be handled in a non-carceral manner.
The police should avoid unnecessary contact with the public
But before an arrest is even an option, police agencies should discourage their officers from initiating any unnecessary contact with members of the public. Pretextual traffic and pedestrian stops for investigatory purposes — that is, without any real suspicion of serious criminal activity — should cease immediately. This is not to say police should ignore all questionable behavior they see while on patrol, but the common policies of looking for petty violators by running license plates to check for lapsed insurance or pulling drivers over for busted tail lights to find suspicious people to search is counterproductive to public safety. Police have always had the discretion to let some violations go, and they should maximize that discretion amid a pandemic.
To be clear, these proposed changes are not simply for the people who would be stopped. Officers are unquestionably at a high risk of infection because the more people they deal with on a shift, the more likely they are to be exposed to the virus. Sadly, officers from around the country have been dying as a result of routine police work.
The health of our communities — and our police — is paramount
Thankfully, most officers — and most people — who contract the virus will not die from the disease. That said, infections can still wreak operational havoc on a department. Even before the current crisis, many departments complained of under-staffing, and now some departments are reporting large numbers of officers calling out sick or are issuing orders for entire precincts to self-isolate, stretching already taxed police forces even further.
After this is over, cops and civil libertarians can return to our fights about the efficacy and fairness of aggressive policing. But at this crucial time, the health of our communities and our officers should take precedence over arrest numbers and other standard measures that don’t meet the needs of the moment.
