172536_CPCA_2020_Spring Magazine - Final | Page 42

Community Relations in the
Time of COVID-19
By: Captain Dave Norris, with Public Information Officer Mike Haobsh and Community Relations Officer Jeanine Luna
San Mateo Police Department
The response to the COVID-19 Pandemic has had a significant impact on all law enforcement organizations.
Every police department has had do some out of the box thinking to navigate these
uncharted waters.
Chiefs spend hours on Zoom calls with department heads, other chiefs,
government, and professional organizations establishing best practices.
Command staff are ensuring safety measures are in place for their
personnel. A new “normal” way of policing includes daily temperature
checks, face masks and gloves. All while ensuring operational
needs are still met, calls are answered, and reports are written – as
crime has certainly not stopped!
Line-level personnel and supervisors perform their job with revised
safety perspective in play, and protect vulnerable populations, who
are more at-risk than ever.
We “lead by example” more than ever during this time. With health
orders in motion, police are the most public-facing representatives of
our local government - sometimes as the only in-person contact to
communicate on measures to minimize spreading infection and keep
us all a little safer.
Revised departmental priorities have provided our Media Team with
a tremendous challenge to keep engagement and communication
operating at peak levels.
42 CALIFORNIA POLICE CHIEF | www.californiapolicechiefs.org