Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called for the New York Police Department to get more aggressive in enforcing social distancing, but some in the city are worried the policies could further the spread of the coronavirus.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has said people who don’t follow social distancing guidelines would receive warnings from police, followed by fines if they don’t disperse. New Yorkers, however, have continued to spend time outside exercising or meeting in groups, prompting Cuomo to call for harsher crackdowns and leading to arrests, according to the Intercept.
“The NYPD has to get more aggressive. Period. Period,” Cuomo said last week. “If you’re going to force me into a position where I have to mandate it, and make it a law, a social distancing law, which I think is absurd, but it has to be enforced.”
Some in the city said this makes both citizens and police officers more vulnerable to the virus, opening the doors to more physical interactions and even potentially violent ones.
“It’s basically just setting up police encounters, and any police encounter does have some potential to escalate,” said Jennvine Wong, a staff attorney at Legal Aid’s Cop Accountability Project. “One of the failings right now is the NYPD has not been communicating very clearly to the public what their role actually is in policing during this time. A lot of people are not very clear.”
Wong added, “We want them to modify their protocols to reflect the fact that we are in the middle of a public health emergency, we are at the epicenter of this pandemic. Other cities with far fewer cases have already decided that it is not only in the community’s best interest but also in the best interest of the individual officers to decrease instances of police encounters with civilians — because we don’t know who has it and who doesn’t.”
More than 1,400 NYPD employees have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, putting the department’s infection rate at 3.8% compared to the city’s overall rate of 0.5%. The Police Benevolent Association filed a complaint arguing the department has failed to provide protection for the officers amid the pandemic.
“No matter how this pandemic progresses, New York City police officers will remain on the front lines and will continue to carry out our duties protecting New Yorkers. But we shouldn’t be forced to do so without adequate protection,” PBA President Patrick J. Lynch said at the time.
“The NYPD has not done enough to ensure that all of our members have protective equipment such as masks and gloves, nor does it have adequate supplies of that equipment to weather a prolonged outbreak,” he added.
While many officers have called out sick, the ones still on duty often reportedly work without gloves and masks.
“The police are themselves both at risk of getting sick and at risk of spreading the disease to others,” said Alex Vitale, who runs the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College. “Police need to practice social distancing.”
The Intercept also noted the recent arrests of two people for an outstanding warrant for spitting and the possession of synthetic marijuana, respectively. They were placed in jail and thus allowed others, such as corrections officers, court staff, and first responders, to interact with them.
“It’s pretty counterproductive to arrest somebody for that, because now you’re putting someone who is already vulnerable into a holding cell for hours and hours, and we have already heard stories about how unsanitary they are and how crowded it is, and how there is no way for people to actually wash their hands, socially distance, and follow CDC guidelines,” Wong said
