Delta police are well equipped to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
That’s the message from Delta police Chief Neil Dubord who provided an operational update to the Delta Police Board at its April virtual board meeting.
Dubord told the board in his report to the board that significant work continues in planning and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“DPD is well equipped to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to plan for increased illness both within the organization and throughout the community,” he said. “The support of the Delta Police Board and city council allows for DPD to respond to the constantly changing environment with very little impact to service.”
In a follow-up interview with the Optimist Monday, Dubord expanding on a number of things in the report including operations and administration.
Dubord said there has been a notable shift in calls for service with a significant amount of calls related to social distancing and people not following public health orders related to quarantine.
“When we switched everything over to our operational support section everyone took on the challenge to respond to the many of the different calls related to COVID-19,” said Dubord. “Our commitment to this community still remains with the ‘no call too small’ philosophy, but there has been changes in how we deliver this service, so some calls that we would typically send an officer too and meet face-to-face, if there is no evidence to be gathered, now that complaint can be taken over the phone and handled accordingly.
“The volume of calls for service for the first three or four weeks, that volume went down, but in the past few weeks we are creeping back to normal levels.”
Dubord said police are starting to see more mental health calls related to COVID-19.
“This past weekend we saw more mental health calls than I have seen in a long time,” he said. “People are isolated, have some cabin fever and are reacting in different ways, so our officers are dealing with a wide range of calls regarding mental health.”
Dubord said other calls are down, including commercial break in enters and break in enters overall.
“We are also not seeing the type of racial calls that some jurisdictions like Vancouver are experiencing,” he said. “Our crime reduction unit has focused on several re-sellers selling the PPE equipment. The provincial government has now provided us with a legislative ability to charge them with a provincial act violation of $2,000, where previously it was a business related bylaw fine of $500, so that is significant.”
In terms of organizational health, Dubord said their human resources department is tracking staffing levels on a daily basis.
“No staff member has tested positive for COVID-19,” he said. “DPD is healthy and front line and support staff are able to carry on all required operations, however, it is likely only a matter of time before an employee tests positive for a COVID-19 infection. DPD has developed response protocols to manage any instances on a case-by-case basis.”
In the next few weeks as health restrictions are slightly lifted, Dubord said DPD will be there to support the community in any way they can.
“I think certainly our role in the community comes down to us understanding what the province is asking and that we communicate that to all our stakeholders and community,” he said. “It’s important we arm our officers to allow them to go out and carry that message and have a degree of influence and credibility to follow the social distancing rules as we move into this next phase.”
