Charles Rabin
Miami Herald
MIAMI — The Miami and Miami-Dade police departments each screen officers for symptoms of the novel coronavirus before every shift. Miami Beach hadn’t followed suit as of Thursday, but the city’s firefighters are checked at the start of their work days.
On Miami Beach and in Coral Gables, police conduct roll call outside each morning, officers following social distancing rules and separating themselves by as much as five feet. Some city of Miami cops, meanwhile, line up in rows close to each other while receiving daily orders. At least that’s what it showed in a Thursday morning Twitter post from the district commander.
First responders across South Florida are rapidly rolling out new safety standards to protect the public and the cops and firefighters whose jobs require them to be on the street and often face-to-face with people. It’s a process being done on the fly and the rules of engagement vary from agency to agency.
It’s way too soon to tell if it’s working, but virus concerns are already thinning the ranks. No positive tests have been reported yet for police, but in the past week 13 Miami police officers and three civilian aides have been sent home to self-quarantine after exhibiting symptoms that could be associated with the virus — like a sore throat, cough or a fever of over 100.4 degrees. Miami-Dade police, which began pre-shift screening on Wednesday, hasn’t sent any officers home.
So far, the rules are in flux, with ones in the morning changed by late afternoon. A cop’s partner may be eating lunch with her or him one moment and at home the next after encountering a sick person or displaying possible symptoms of the deadly virus.
Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber summed it up this week after a series of quick decisions related to the virus and his overworked police department led to the total shutdown of this year’s especially rowdy spring break: “What seems to be a bold action in the morning, feels pretty tepid by the evening.”
All police departments say they are following Center for Disease Control guidelines by distancing themselves from people when possible, trying not to touch their own faces, washing their hands often and having a trained technician nearby should they come in contact with anyone exhibiting symptoms.
Still, Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina said the biggest struggle for police is finding the balance between protecting first responders and the public, without scaring residents. It’s a new landscape, he said. The chief said he’s been in constant contact with other local chiefs and with directors from across the nation, as far away as San Francisco and Houston.
“We don’t have anything in our combined years of experience like this,” Colina said. “We’re communicating. But ultimately, we’re open to suggestions from anybody. We’re trying to figure out what’s the best way.”
Colina got an early look at the difficulties inherent in policing during the quickly spreading COVID-19 outbreak, which as of Thursday morning had affected more than 10,000 people across the country and almost 400 in Florida.
Last week, the city’s entire motorcycle unit, 21 members, self-quarantined after learning a member of a Brazilian entourage they were escorting around town had been infected by the virus. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez soon announced he had been infected and has been in isolation at home since. Colina then self-isolated because he had been near Suarez. The chief has since tested negative and is back at work.
Colina said it took some time, but as of Thursday all the motorcycle officers had been tested and three have been cleared to go back to work. The others are still waiting on results.
“Getting the results has been a challenge,” said the chief.
At least so far, street crime hasn’t been one of the main difficulties facing law enforcement. Arrests are down for several reasons, chief among them, most stores and restaurants are closed and far fewer people are out and about. Police, all too aware of the stress on the public, are issuing more warnings and promises to appear in court. And the courts are being more lenient on sentencing, particularly for misdemeanors, in major part, to try and prevent COVID-19 from infecting the jail population.
In Coral Gables, Police Chief Ed Hudak said three officers are self-isolated, one who wasn’t feeling well and two others after returning from a trip abroad. Hudak said his department is already doing roll call outside in an attempt to social distance and that he recently got a thermometer from a local hospital and the department will begin pre-shift screenings on Friday morning.
Other measures the department has taken include closing the main building on Salzedo Street to any member of the public who hasn’t been screened and having employees close doors inside the building. Also, Hudak has told anyone who can work remotely — mainly civilian personnel — to do so.
Despite those measures, the Gables chief is well aware of how early it is in dealing with the pandemic and how fluid the situation is likely to be for his officers.
“What we’re doing right now may change by tonight. I think this is a slow walk to a total shutdown. When that happens, law enforcement is going to have to go to calls at people’s homes,” said Hudak. “There are just so many moving parts to this thing. The playbook is not really a playbook, it’s a literal, virtual moving thing.”