Law enforcement officers are being put in a unique situation when it comes to patrolling their beat during a pandemic balancing keeping themselves and their communities safe.
Law enforcement officers are being put in a unique situation when it comes to patrolling their beat during a pandemic balancing keeping themselves and their communities safe.
Our quentin smith speaks with two sheriff departments and has more on how what it's like to police the community during this covid-19 pandemic.
To protect and serve.....those are the duties given to law enforcement officers.... but clay county sheriff eddie scott says covid-19 is making those responsibilities become challenging.
"the officers are putting themselves at risk.
The individual you're dealing with, you have no idea if they could be positive, they could have a stomach bug or a flu we don't know, all we know is that we've got a job to do and we've got to do it."
Scott says his deputies are wearing masks and gloves whenever they respond to call..
But even with the extra gear, it can sometimes hinder them from doing their job.
"the guidelines, the social distancing, the gloves, the masks, those are guidelines for us, in reality, it's not going to always pan out."
Despite their best efforts, the virus has found its way inside the department.
"a month ago i had one of my deputies test positive and i just recently had three of my correctional officers at the jail test positive."
But it's not only the clay county sheriff's department that's being impacted.... if you head south... the winston county sheriff's department is also facing similar issues..
"we've had a few of our guards who've tested positive, they had to be quarantined and re-tested, and then we've had some inmates."
Winston county chief deputy keith alexander says the pandemic is forcing them to switch up their response once they arrive on scene..
"if we have to go in a house we wear a mask and gloves, if it's possible, we try to get the victims to step outside and talk to us instead of going in their house.
We don't want to carry something into their house and contaminate them and affect them if we happen to have it."
Deputies are constantly having to clean and sanitize their vehicles whenever they're transporting an inmate..
Alexander says they have all of these guidelines in place because he knows how much of a burden it'll be on the department if a deputy were to contract the virus..
"we only have eight full time officers county me and the sheriff, so it does put a big burden on us if someone gets sick.
If it we're for our part time and reserve deputies it would be tough to handle it, but we would handle it."
With both departments being small..
The say they would rely on help from neighboring counties to assist them, should any of their deputies contract the virus stinger
Some people from Lowndes are happy the governor issued a mask order
