‘There is worry.’ Bibb deputies share what it’s like working during coronavirus pandemic
Well into the 1990s as the AIDS epidemic wore on, an astute listener to police radio chatter in Middle Georgia could, on occasion, hear Macon cops warning one another as suspects they knew to be infected with HIV were arrested.
“Be careful,” the cops would say, sometimes employing a crude code word to caution colleagues about the virus, “he’s got the package.”
Now with the appearance of the far more communicable new coronavirus, law enforcement officers face another health concern, a new peril lurking in already-dangerous work.
Some are not sure what to expect as the virus spreads amid mounting medical worries and, longer term, what a potential societal shutdown could mean on the public-safety front.
Late last week as the reality began sinking in, Peggy Newman, a Bibb County sheriff’s deputy and former Macon police vice cop, knew all too well that social distancing is not much of an option in her line of work.
Newman, a cop for more than a quarter-century, stood outside the sheriff’s department on the south side of downtown as everyday bustle in the city behind her slowed down.
“There is worry, you know, that we might contact the virus,” she said. “But we still have to carry on with our jobs. ... We’re gonna continue doing what we do every day.”
She hopes to avoid taking the new coronavirus home. She is careful with her uniforms, washing, disinfecting them.
“And I don’t bring them into the house,” Newman said.
Sheriff’s Capt. Brad Wolfe, who oversees the department’s patrol division, figured cops will adapt to the challenges the coronavirus presents as best they can.
“Our patrol people ... deal with this kind of stuff every day with every kind of disease known to man (that) is out there that they’re potentially exposed to,” he said. “It’s not really new (for the deputies) to come out here every day knowing they may come in contact with HIV or the regular flu or any other kinds of diseases you can think of. So that’s kind of something that’s built into their mentality that that’s part of the risk of the job — just like being shot.”
Not that concerns about the growing pandemic don’t give “you pause a little bit,” Wolfe said.
But he and the other deputies are taking what precautions they can, washing their hands and keeping their distance when possible.
Even so, it is not as if a cop can toss handcuffs to someone they’re arresting and ask them to do the honors themselves. Suspects aren’t exactly going to escort themselves to jail.
For now, Wolfe said of the job, “It’s an unknown. We don’t know what to expect.”