Police agencies prep crackdown on COVID-19 scofflaws

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This article was published 04/11/2020 (1549 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG police say the time for education is over as its officers ramp up COVID-19 enforcement by issuing fines to people who breach public health orders.

The service has started to triage 311 calls from the public regarding large gatherings in private residences, and will now send officers to intervene in those gatherings, Const. Rob Carver said Wednesday.

Police are one of several agencies, including Manitoba RCMP and city bylaw officers, who are authorized to enforce public health orders.

The fine for individual health order breaches, announced in late October, is $1,296 — more than double the original $486 fine.

Until now, police and other agencies said they would focus on education as opposed to doling out financial penalties. While there are still opportunities for education and warnings based on officers’ discretion, police will strike a more serious tone, Carver said.

“We’ve been doing education for a long time and the (COVID-19) numbers have consistently gone up. I’m going to say that me standing here today and discussing the $1,296 fine is an indication that we will be focusing less on education and more on enforcement,” he said.

Eight fines related to public health orders have been handed out so far, but Carver did not specify when these fines were administered, or how many COVID-19-related calls have been received.

A group of officers in the central division has been tasked with COVID-19 enforcement duties on top of regular duties, Carver said, but declined to specify the number of officers involved.

Asked whether the added duties would put a strain on police resources, Carver said resources are in constant fluctuation, and noted that while COVID-19 breaches will be of concern for the service they’re not the highest priority call.

Several factors, including the nature and time of a call and urgency of the caller’s concern, will determine whether officers are sent to follow up on a breach, he said.

“If there is a large party in a time of a pandemic, the priority of that call is going to be higher than it would have been a year ago,” Carver said.

Officers who respond to a COVID-19 call will attempt to ensure public safety by breaking up groups larger than five people, handing out fines and recording names of involved individuals for contact tracing purposes, he said.

In a separate news conference Wednesday, Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman said he supports more intensive enforcement of public health orders by city bylaw officers and other agencies, but stopped short of commenting on police operations.

Manitoba RCMP said its officers are ramping up their enforcement measures.

On Wednesday, RCMP said 182 calls were made to the government inquiry line related to COVID-19 from Oct. 26 to Nov. 1. The majority of those calls were handled through education, however five resulted in verbal warnings. In three instances, RCMP issued fines for breach of public health orders.

One woman was fined for not wearing a mask after Stonewall RCMP responded to a call related to an intoxicated woman causing a disturbance on Oct. 28. Another was issued by Cross Lake RCMP to a homeowner who hosted a house party on Oct. 30 that had more than five people in her residence. That same day, Norway House RCMP responded to a report of a woman not self-isolating as directed; the woman had been warned in the past and was issued a fine.

“The focus of our officers since the very beginning of the pandemic has been on providing education and issuing warnings, however, with the dramatic rise in cases across the province, we recognize that a shift is now required,” RCMP chief superintendent Rob Hill said in a statement.

“While officers will still have discretion, I have made it clear that ticketing is the preferred option for individuals who are blatantly disregarding the public health orders and putting lives at risk. This is about protecting the health and safety of every Manitoban. We all need to do our part to help reduce and stop the spread of this virus.”

julia-simone.rutgers@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jsrutgers