By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson Police Chief Jeff Hooper clarified Monday the current state of operations for his department.
"We'll respond to all crimes in progress, any violent crimes and of course any emergencies, outside of medical emergencies," Hooper said. "We're no longer responding to those. We're letting the medical professionals handle those and we're limiting our exposure there, as well."
Part of the reason for that is conservation of personal protective equipment for those best trained to handle such cases.
"Facilities like the hospital and the fire department and EMS that respond primarily to those medical calls, they had top priority for PPE," Hooper said. "It wasn't until Monday that HPD finally got some PPE, just in the form of masks. We have rubber gloves, we're doing okay there, but we only got enough masks to issue one mask to each officer."
Governor Laura Kelly has said that law enforcement has a responsibility to make sure her stay at home order is carried out. Hooper says if there is a gathering that does not comply with the order, his department is prepared to respond.
"I hope that our officers would be able to respond to circumstances like that and get voluntary compliance," Hooper said. "I think that everybody in the community is well aware of the risk and the dangers. Our hope is that people will voluntarily abide by the Governor's order. In those rare cases that they don't, our officers, of course, will respond. We'll seek to get volutary compliance. We certainly don't want to have to issue summons or cite people and certainly don't want to have to arrest people for violation of that order, but it is our responsibility to enforce it the best way we can."
Hooper said the assumption is going to be that those who are driving are on essential business. They don't plan to pull drivers over just for being out.