Belleville’s Deputy Police Chief Chris Barry was the guest on the Lorne Brooker Show Thursday morning, and talked about the lockdown and restrictions from the province.
Barry says cleaning of offices has been a major priority as of late.
“Restrict visitors, stepped up our cleaning efforts. We have done things like purchase disinfectant foggers to clean our cruisers and our prisoner transportation vehicles. Close our front lobby. There has been a been a number of measures taken here to try and adjust to this.”
Barry adds that local residents have done a good job in this community, and for the most part are respecting the guidelines.
He adds that their focus is not on enforcement, but on education.
“It is rare that we get challenged. Everybody understands the circumstances that we are in and the dangers to the vulnerable parts of our population if we do not adhere to these guidelines.”
The Deputy says Thursday morning they were handed more information on how the province wants police to handle the situation.
“We may be in a position here as officers, our front line, to make reasonable inquiries to see if people are in compliance with the orders. They do not define reasonable inquiries. We are not going to be stopping vehicles for the sole purpose of checking whether they are following these guidelines.”
“We may have situations where officers may see a group congregating and not socially distancing, where they are going to investigate that. We do have the legislation that provides us with the set fines, if we find we have to go down that route.”
