Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong: stress calls increase during shut down, but community responding well overall
Submitted by Kelsey Penrose on Fri, 03/27/2020 - 10:09am
According to Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong, the Sheriff's Office has slightly changed the way they perform their duties thanks to the shut down, and they are already seeing a change in calls for emergency services. While there has been an increase in "stress related" calls, intoxication-related calls are down and community members have been taking care of each other, said Furlong.
"You can see the difference in the types of calls not coming in," said Furlong. "Calls involving bar room disturbances and DUIS aren't coming in because people are staying home."
The Sheriff's Office has been responding to family issues, but none that are "remarkable," and so far the officers have been able to manage those circumstances themselves, said Furlong.
"However, we have seen a large increase in stress related calls," he said. "Especially for those who are already challenged, (these are the types of calls) the MOST team would normally deal with."
Something the Sheriff's Office has been working hard at lately are deescalation trainings to better help deal with these stress related calls, and all calls in general.
"Deescalating training has really been paying off," said Furlong. "We have a few folks here in town that are known to have challenges and we've been dealing with them long term."
One way the Sheriff's Office has changed is they are now spending more effort patrolling closed businesses to make sure business owners and the properties are kept safe.
"Patrols are on notice to concentrate on closed businesses to protect them," he said. "We have not seen any challenges with this. That's an advantage to our patrol division; the fewer things we have sidetracking them, the better we are."
Furlong said it is about effort, not more patrols.
"We are not putting more patrols on the road," he said. "We're trying to balance our approach and protect our employees. We're trying to ensure all of our employees stay healthy."
Deputies have also begun issuing more citations and taking in less arrests in an effort to protect the jail population from a COVID-19 spread.
The jail population has dramatically decreased, said Furlong, which the office is "very pleased with."
"Most of the folks who have passed through the jail have been in crisis," said Furlong. "We try to book them in, get them services, and get them out."
The Sheriff's Office has also scaled back their personal contact with the public. While no services have been rolled back, residents are encouraged to call the Sheriff's Office first to limit personal contact, and many times, emailing is even more efficient than arriving in person.
While service calls over the last thirty days are up 10 percent from what they were during the same 30 day period of last year, during the period of shut down, calls have "dramatically gone down."
"I want everyone to know, we are receiving overwhelming support from this community," said Furlong. "Neighbors and friends are looking out for each other, businesses are taking care of their employees. Of the businesses I've had to speak to about shutting down, I've gotten 100 percent cooperation from them."
Overall, Furlong says that he believes the community has responded to the closure in a very positive way.
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