How police in Sonoma County are enforcing coronavirus-related health orders

Officers tasked with enforcing Sonoma County’s stay-at-home orders and restrictions on public gatherings are continuing to prioritize education over citations, though repeat violators and people suspected of breaking the law may be cited for not following the mandates, several law enforcement officials said.

A California Health and Safety Code section gives police and deputies the authority to enforce public health orders with citations of up to $1,000 and six months in jail, a penalty local law enforcement agencies have largely tried to avoid since the coronavirus pandemic began.

The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, the county’s largest law enforcement agency, has issued nine citations since the coronavirus prompted the shelter-in-place orders on March 18. All but one involved people suspected of committing some other crime, ranging from drug possession to checking car doors to see if they’re unlocked, Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Juan Valencia said.

The ninth, a man operating a fruit stand on Adobe and Frates roads outside Petaluma, was cited and released Saturday after a deputy was flagged down by several people who said he was not complying with the county’s health orders, Valencia said.

The Sheriff’s Office warned a fruit vendor at that same location their stand did not comply with the county’s health orders on March 21 and again on April 17, though Valencia said he did not know if the person contacted by deputies was the same man cited on Saturday.

Each citation by deputies has stemmed from reports from other ?people, as opposed to proactive patrolling for violations of the health order, Valencia added. The department has issued a total of 16 warnings, a mix of notices to businesses; people gathering at beaches, which were closed by the county on March 24; and out-of-town vacationers staying in short-term rental units and who were in violation of the county health orders.

“We’re still going to educate, and if that doesn’t work, our only other option is to do enforcement,” Valencia said. “But we don’t want people to put us in that position. We’d rather educate.”

In Santa Rosa, where Police Chief Rainer Navarro on Friday announced that officers would take a more active role in enforcing the local health orders, only one person had been cited since the announcement as of mid-week, raising the total number of citations within the city limits to six.

The most recent citation happened early Saturday, when Santa Rosa officers were called to a medical marijuana business in southwest Santa Rosa by security personnel who said a man had climbed onto the roof, Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Summer Gloeckner said.

The man later admitted to trespassing and trying to break into the business, and was booked into the Sonoma County Jail on suspicion of attempted burglary, breaking the terms of his probation and violating the public health order, Gloeckner said. Five prior citations by officers were related to residents who defied the shelter-in-place order by having parties or gatherings in their homes.

Friday’s announcement came after the department continued to receive a high number of calls from people concerned about compliance with the county’s health orders, even almost a month into the shelter-in-place, Navarro said. His department has fielded upward of 470 calls related to COVID-19 issues since March 26, receiving anywhere from 10 to 30 calls on weekends and slightly more during weekdays, Navarro added. While the agency was not adopting a no-tolerance policy when enforcing the orders, officers will not turn a blind out to egregious violations or people who repeatedly fail to follow the rules set out by the county mandates.

“I’m telling my officers you can enforce this because the warnings have not been working for everybody,” Navarro said. “You have a portion of the community that are disregarding (the orders) and doing it over and over again, and our calls for service aren’t going down for these particular types of calls.”

Police in Petaluma, the county’s second-largest city, did not respond to an email seeking information on how many citations officers had issued related to the county’s stay-at-home order.

In northern Sonoma County, officers working in Cloverdale have issued no citations since the health order began, Cloverdale Police Chief Jason Ferguson said. Most residents in the area were complying with the county’s health orders on their own, or adapted once contacted by officers, including non-essential businesses given written warnings from the department’s officers, Ferguson said.

The Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety has also issued no citations, though officers working for the agency have been told to use discretion when deciding if doing so is appropriate, agency Director Tim Mattos said.

While he understands the importance of the health orders to combat the spread of the coronavirus, Mattos said he was also sensitive to the fact that some families may be harder hit than others by the pandemic.

“It’s a hard pill to swallow for people,” Mattos said. “We went from one extreme ... to being locked in our homes. That’s definitely going to take a transition.”