Non-essential businesses remaining open during the COVID-19 shutdown.
Groups of people standing less than six feet from each other.
People not wearing masks.
These are some of the complaints the Nashville Police Department and the Brown County Health Department have received since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Brown County.
In total, as of May 15 the police department has responded to seven complaints since the beginning of March related to people or businesses not following safety guidelines, with six of those complaints happening in the same day at three different locations.
“We get people that call in complaints and want us to check on businesses to make sure they meet the requirements for essential,” NPD Chief of Police Ben Seastrom said last week.
Before Gov. Eric Holcomb issued orders phasing in non-essential businesses this month, an officer would visit the business and determine if they met the criteria to be considered “essential.” If they didn’t, then the officer would share information on how to conduct their business during the shutdown, like offering curbside pick-up or doing online sales.
“If they don’t comply with that, then we notify Indiana Excise,” Seastrom said.
When restrictions were first put in place — to help lessen the patient load on local hospitals and flatten the curve of the virus in the state — Holcomb allowed for essential businesses, like grocery stores or restaurants that did carry out orders, to continue to operate.
But those businesses had to comply with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, like washing hands and sanitizing frequently.
The governor created an Enforcement Response Team organized by the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission — the excise police — to investigate businesses not following guidelines or operating when they are deemed non-essential. Violators could be shut down and subjected to prosecution for failure to comply. Businesses are also subject to sanction by the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Agency.
Seastrom said when his department received complaints, an officer would give the business at least one warning before notifying the excise police.
“We try to work it out where we don’t want anyone to fail in business, but we want people to comply with the orders because we have to comply with the orders. Everyone needs to stay safe,” he said.
Per the governor’s executive order, the excise police would first issue a verbal warning to stop unsafe practices. If the verbal order was not followed, then the Indiana State Department of Health would issue an order to cease and desist. If that was not followed, then the ISDH could issue an order to the close the business, according to the Indiana Joint Information Center.
If the order to close a business was issued then the business would be reported to the Indiana Secretary of State and other relevant boards for consideration of the revocation proceedings. The order to close could also be referred to a local prosecuting attorney.
Statewide, as of last week, the Excise Police task force had investigated 1,424 complaints in Indiana. Of those, 1,243 were unfounded because the business was not open or was operating in compliance with the executive order. Of the total investigations, 137 verbal warnings were issued, and only with one cease-and-desist letter.
Handling complaints
On May 1, Holcomb unveiled a five-stage Back On Track Indiana plan with he goal being to have everything fully open again by July 4. Since March 24, Hoosiers had been instructed to limit travel and limit business operations with schools physically closing.
At this point, most of the state is still in phase two. This phase allows for religious services to resume; personal services, like salons and tattoo parlors, to be open by appointment only with social distancing and face coverings when possible; and restaurants and bars to open at 50 percent capacity, but with no bar seating and no live entertainment. Servers and kitchen staff must wear face coverings.
Local non-essential travel is now allowed, along with social gatherings of up to 25 people. Wearing face masks in public settings is still recommended, and those in the high risk category are still advised to remain home whenever possible. Public libraries also can open. Retail and commercial businesses can operate at 50 percent capacity.
By phase three on May 24, retail stores and malls can move to 75 percent capacity with patrons practicing social distancing. Face coverings will still be recommended and social gatherings of up to 100 people will be allowed. All travel restrictions will be lifted at this point. Openings of movie theaters, campgrounds, and gyms with restrictions also will be allowed.
Seastrom said last week after more businesses had been allowed to open with restrictions, his department had not received as many complaints.
The Nashville Town Council also approved recommendations, which included following the governor’s plan, and guidelines set forth by the Brown County Chamber of Commerce. They addressed sanitization, product sampling, social distancing, signage and other details.
The town also recommends that residents, workers and visitors wear face coverings at all times in public areas in Nashville, and encourages residents, businesses and visitors to follow the CDC guidelines for social distancing.
The police department has also received complaints about people not practicing social distancing and gathering in large groups in town. Officers respond and work to separate them or put space between them.
Some of the larger groups were families that live together and were traveling together, Seastrom said. Others were large groups of people who were getting out of their homes together and seeing what was open, or visiting Brown County State Park.
A few of those groups were asked to separate, Seastrom said.
“The goal is to keep people aware that this is still happening and we want to be safe,” he said.
Complaints about people not wearing masks have just been heard in general conversation, an town officers have not officially talked with anyone about masks, Seastrom said.
“If they talk to us about masks, we say, ‘Yeah, it is recommended you wear them. I can’t force you to wear them,’” he said.
“We get social distancing more. ‘Hey, there’s a group of people,’ for example, ‘at the Four Corners. They’re all gathered together playing Frisbee.’ We’ll go down there and we’ll check, we’ll talk to them if they happen to be there.”
When officers go to speak with groups of people about social distancing, Seastrom said the response has been positive.
“We’re not going to take legal action against them for anything. We’re just hoping they comply with the rest of the world. Most everybody I personally talked to have been pretty easygoing and comply immediately. They go back to their day and we move on. It’s been nice interactions,” he said.
As the pandemic carries on and life is brought back to a new normal in phases, Seastrom said the town police’s role will be to share information about guidelines as well as to enforce the laws they always have.
Seastrom said some residents have taken to social media to express concerns about folks or businesses not following guidelines or wearing masks, but a lot of those complaints did not make their way to his department.
“We’re more than willing to investigate and check on these people, but if we don’t know, we can’t go. It goes back to, ‘If you see something, say something,’” he said.
Despite restrictions, groups of people have come up with different was to gather in town and still follow social distancing guidelines, Seastrom said. Recently, a group of 12 or 13 people had driven older cars to Nashville and set up in Pat Reilly parking lot. They all were spaced out and sitting six feet apart in lawn chairs.
“It was pretty funny seeing them. I was happy to see people were using their heads and come up with a game plan to be able to get together,” he said.
Nashville Police didn’t receive any complaints about the group. “I drove through and they were doing everything they needed to be doing,” Seastrom said.
“They got the friendly wave, and I moved on.”
Enforcing orders
One local business, the exotic petting zoo Zoo’Opolis, shared on social media that they had been visited by three Excise Police officers after announcing they were going to start allowing private tours to families.
Under the governor’s plans, cultural, entertainment and tourism businesses like museums, zoos, bowling alleys, aquariums and like facilities can open at 50 percent capacity by June 14.
“They came to see if Zoo’Opolis was open and, in fact, practicing social distancing, sanitation and enforcing all ‘safety measures’ and to arrest her (owner Kathleen Bowen), if she was open?” the post on Facebook states, which was signed by Bowen.
The zoo sits on 17 acres. The post argued that tours should be allowed since groups of 25 or fewer people can now gather.
“Why? What is going on? Upon posting our plan to open giving only private family tours, the police informed us we can not open until groups of 500 are allowed. Why?” the post continues.
“We have over 100 animals. What about their care? Care requires money. Is the purpose of the executive order to protect or to set precedence for a dictatorship or socialism?”
The post argues that places like Brown County State Park and large stores like Wal-Mart are open. “One family on 17 acres isn’t safe enough? What’s going on here?” it reads. Bowen asked followers of the zoo to share it.
The Brown County Health Department has also received complaints relating to businesses not following social distancing guidelines or operating when they were deemed non-essential. County Health Officer Dr. Norman Oestrike would not say which businesses they specifically received complaints about.
He did not have exact numbers for how many businesses Excise Police visited in Brown County because of non-compliant complaints, but he said that “almost everyone complies once they hear the rules.”
Local health departments have the authority to do anything necessary to make sure someone is not “jeopardizing the public’s health,” Oestrike explained last week.
“The reality is that (authority) is totally ineffective because it’s civil law. We can’t write tickets (right now). The courts are closed. Anything that we do from an enforcement standpoint will be after the fact, and by then, a moot point,” he said.
Oestrike said if the department receives a complaint about a restaurant not following the guidelines set forth by Gov. Holcomb, then a health department employee will visit that food service to educate them on the guidelines.
For other businesses, like a barber shop, Oestrike said the health department does not have the authority to step in, but would forward the complaint to the Excise Police.
“What the governor’s big hammer is is that the state licenses most people. In all of the state laws, there are requirements you do things safely and not impair the public, so instead of having to go to court and prove something, they can just not renew their license or suspend it. That’s the big hammer,” Oestrike said.
He said most of the issues the health department hears about are people asking for advice, or because they know others are not following guidelines.
“One of the big issues are these self-serve drinks. The governor says you can’t do that, and there are folks who say, ‘We can’t be open if we can’t do that.’ There’s nothing I can do about that,” he said.
Last week, health department food inspector Jennifer Heller said she had not received any complaints about restaurants not following guidelines from consumers, but said that complaints could start coming in over the next couple weeks as local restaurants start opening to dine-in patrons.
She said some restaurants are choosing to remain closed until later this month to make sure they have enough personal protective equipment and meet other space requirements.
As the economy slowly begins to open back up in phases with restrictions in place, Oestrike said it’s important for people to remember that the virus has not gone away. He said that these measures were put in place to flatten the curve of the virus spike to ensure people had adequate access to hospital beds or ventilators if needed.
As of May 15, Brown County had 29 confirmed positive cases of the virus out of only 136 people tested. Counties surrounding us were well into the triple digits on confirmed cases.
The virus is still a dangerous threat, Oestrike said.
“The issue that is unsaid is if you get to the point where you need a ventilator, you have over a 50 percent probability you will die no matter what the treatment is that we have at this time. Some estimates as high as 90 percent are going to die by some studies,” he said.
“The fact we flattened the curve and now everyone can get treatment doesn’t mean people are going to survive or we’re not going to spread the disease.”
That’s why it’s important guidelines are followed set forth by the government and CDC, he said.
“Large groups say, ‘Well, they’re opening up. I don’t have to do that.’ The disease is still here as virulent and vicious as it ever was,” he said.
Oestrike recommends that if someone sees a business, like a restaurant, violating safety guidelines they should contact the health department and the state Excise Police. Brown County is located is located in District 6, which can be contacted at 317-541-4100.
Going forward, Oestrike said that the health department’s role will be to inform people and help them follow safe practices, like by providing personal protective equipment to nursing homes or local government offices.
“The economy is going to open up, and the responsibility of following the rules is on the individuals, and if they don’t follow the rules, there will be a lot of disease, but they will be able to have a hospital bed or a ventilator if they need it,” he said.
