If you see multiple police cruisers and a prisoner van responding to a call in your Burnaby neighbourhood, there’s a chance it might have more to do with COVID-19 than a major police incident.
That’s what happened last Thursday.
A NOW reader sent in photos of what looked like a major police incident on Manchester Drive, with three police cruisers, an unmarked police vehicle and a prisoner transport van responding.
The incident ended up being a consensual fight with no one interested in pressing charges.
The reason a minor dust-up sparked the appearance of so many police vehicles has to do with new policies Burnaby RCMP has put in place over the last few weeks to protect its members from coronavirus, according to spokesperson Cpl. Mike Kalanj.
In most circumstances, he said the detachment is sending out one officer per cruiser, meaning more cruisers – but the same number of Mounties – are arriving at each call.
“If we do have two officers in a vehicle, our direction has been for both officers to wear surgical masks,” Kalanj said. “This is to limit the risk of any potential spread of COVID-19 between those who need to share vehicles. We are also ensuring that police vehicles are cleaned regularly.”
And, instead of transporting prisoners in the back seats of police vehicles, the detachment is now regularly sending out the prisoner transport van.
Using the van cuts down on the number of officers making contact with prisoners and means only one vehicle needs to be cleaned afterwards, Kalanj said.
Although some have had to self-isolate as per public health directives around travel, none of Burnaby RCMP’s officers or civilian employees has yet tested positive for the virus, according to Kalanj.
To keep everyone healthy, the detachment has taken a number of other steps as well: practicing physical distancing at the detachment, stepping up hand hygiene, shuttering community police offices, limiting front-counter services at the main office and allowing some staff to work from home.
While local Mounties will be out in the community on foot and bike patrols, the detachment is cancelling or postponing community events scheduled for the coming weeks, including National Police Week events and the first-ever Burnaby RCMP Youth Academy.
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