{"id":806119,"date":"2020-04-06T18:10:42","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T00:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=381486"},"modified":"2020-04-06T18:10:42","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T00:10:42","slug":"law-enforcement-calls-drop-as-officials-seek-middle-ground-in-enforcing-public-health-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/law-enforcement-calls-drop-as-officials-seek-middle-ground-in-enforcing-public-health-order\/","title":{"rendered":"Law enforcement calls drop as officials seek middle ground in enforcing public health order"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/04\/enforcement-sdn-040420-1-1024x683.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/04\/enforcement-sdn-040420-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/04\/enforcement-sdn-040420-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/04\/enforcement-sdn-040420-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/04\/enforcement-sdn-040420-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/04\/enforcement-sdn-040420-1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><figcaption><strong>Police cars are pictured in Frisco on Thursday, April 2.<\/strong><br \/><em>Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>DILLON \u2014 Law enforcement agencies in the area have seen a considerable drop in call volume over the past month, with most of the county making a concerted effort to stay home, social distance and space out on the trails.<\/p>\n<p>The number of calls for service \u2014 including the county\u2019s law enforcement and emergency services \u2014 dropped by more than 16% from February (6,023) to March (5,051) this year and by more than 20% compared with March 2019 (6,314).<\/p>\n<p>Taking a closer look at the data provided by the Summit County 911 Center, primarily the types of incidents to which officers are responding, the drop in volume might actually be more pronounced.<\/p>\n<p>Most notably, the area\u2019s law enforcement have been engaging in significantly more \u201carea patrols\u201d since the onset of the county\u2019s public health order March 16, which enacted widespread closures of nonessential businesses and asked residents to begin engaging in extreme social distancing efforts.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row sd-donation sd-donation-mobile p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/SDN-logo-white-1.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/SDN-logo-white-1.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/sdn-banner-paypal.jpg)\" class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/donate\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=donation&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=mid-article\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Area patrols are when an officer will \u201cself-initiate\u201d an incident by simply going to patrol a certain block or neighborhood, without dispatch receiving a call about a specific complaint or request for a police presence, according to Jerry Del Valle, the county\u2019s emergency dispatch director.<\/p>\n<p>In March of 2019, a total of 2.3% of law enforcement incidents were characterized as area patrols, but that number jumped to more than 15% in March of this year. In other words, while officers are continuing to patrol, they\u2019re definitely getting fewer calls for assistance from the public.<\/p>\n<p>And while most crime is down, there are a couple of categories in which officials have seen increases since the shutdown. <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Domestic violence numbers are up (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/summit-advocates-for-victims-of-assault-sees-significant-rise-in-domestic-abuse-amid-shutdown\/\">Domestic violence numbers are up<\/a>, both for law enforcement officers and the Summit Advocates for Victims of Assault. Traffic stops have been slightly down, though officials are still concerned with the number of people getting caught traveling at high speeds or under the influence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s still dangerous to drive,\u201d Colorado State Patrol Capt. Jared Rapp said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to keep people out of the hospital so that those beds can be used for ill patients instead of stretching resources for crashes because people are driving too fast or impaired. Those are the top contributing factors for fatal crashes every year, and those are increasing with traffic being lighter and people thinking law enforcement isn\u2019t going to stop them. But we\u2019re still stopping people who are driving too fast or making the wrong choices before getting behind the wheel.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><\/figure>\n<p>Rapp said State Patrol also has increased its presence in high stress areas since the shutdown, such as Loveland Pass, where crowds initially gathered in droves to ski and hike. With troopers at the top and bottom of the hill, the agency has been able to cut down significantly on the number of individuals parking illegally over the past couple of weekends.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, the Summit County Sheriff\u2019s Office announced late last week that deputies would be more strictly enforcing parking violations on county roads. While both Rapp and Summit County Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons said the increased enforcement has paid off in reducing parking woes and gathering at trailheads, other potential violations of the county and state public health orders remain a concern.<\/p>\n<p>According to data from the Summit County 911 Center, dispatch received 25 calls regarding potential violations of the public health order from March 18-31. From April 1-6, there were 30 such calls, according to Del Valle. And while all calls might not necessarily denote a legitimate violation, the trend is certainly moving in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n<p>Fifth Judicial District Attorney Bruce Brown said law enforcement agencies and district attorneys around the state largely have maintained a non-enforcement policy for the public health order. He noted that zero citations have been written in the entire district, which includes Summit, Lake, Eagle and Clear Creek counties.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had a call with many of the DAs around the state, and nobody is really seeing any concerted effort to cite,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI don\u2019t think anybody is heavily enforcing. That doesn\u2019t mean there have been no citations. There have been a few (in other districts), but I\u2019m guessing it\u2019s in the single-digit range. \u2026 It is one of those situations that\u2019s fluid, meaning if circumstances warrant, we will change our practice on a dime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some communities already have begun to tighten the enforcement around restrictions.<\/p>\n<p>Law enforcement leaders in Pitkin County \u2014 including Sheriff Joe DiSalvo and police chiefs in Aspen, Basalt and Snowmass Village \u2014 issued a joint statement March 31, warning residents that all four agencies would be citing violators of the public health order.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-facebook wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-facebook\"><\/figure>\n<p>The letter reads: \u201cSadly, we have seen some behaviors which are incredibly thoughtless as well as potentially dangerous. We will not hesitate to arrest and summons individuals who make such poor choices that endanger fellow community members or first responders.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Violating the public health order is a Class 1 misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and up to 18 months of jail time.<\/p>\n<p>Locally, law enforcement is still trying to influence public behavior using less extreme measures. FitzSimons said local police would be rolling out a new system this week to deal with violators. Instead of simply dispersing violators, officers will begin issuing written warnings, which they\u2019ll be able to track. Individuals who are identified as violating again likely will be cited in some capacity.<\/p>\n<p>FitzSimons called the program the \u201cnext evolution\u201d in attempts to enforce the public health order, noting that it would serve as a pathway to policies similarto Pitkin County\u2019s if violations continue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause we\u2019re keeping track of this, if we have to go back to someone a second time, there would be a citation,\u201d FitzSimons said. \u201cIt will help our deputies and officers who are used to taking enforcement actions. Now they\u2019re filling out a form and handing it to someone. And members of the public will see deputies actually handing them something, and hopefully that will make them think.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brown noted that violators also could see civil action taken against them, in which offenders would be ordered by a judge to comply with the order or be held in contempt and jailed or fined.<\/p>\n<p>The new warning system also should give officials and the public a better understanding of how many legitimate public health order violations there actually are over the next few weeks. Officials are still asking members of the public to comply willingly and to help self-police the area. But if violations do continue to be a problem, the pressure to tighten enforcement policies could lead to fast changes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we had mass noncompliance or instances that were threatening to community health, we\u2019ll reevaluate quickly,\u201d Brown said. \u201c\u2026 The thing that strikes me as the most likely is that we could see enforcement at the social gatherings occurring at trailheads and drop-in spots for backcountry skiing. If people are congregating like they usually do around the back of their cars, socializing and not keeping distance, I think we\u2019ll reevaluate. It\u2019s been a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/law-enforcement-calls-drop-as-officials-seek-middle-ground-in-enforcing-public-health-order\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Police cars are pictured in Frisco on Thursday, April 2.Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com DILLON \u2014 Law enforcement agencies in the area have seen a considerable drop in call volume over the past month, with most of the county making a concerted effort to stay home, social distance and space out on the trails. The number [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-806119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-17 01:34:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}