Police seeing fewer incidents during pandemic

Lake City Police call volume has dropped significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Over the last several years Lake City Police have averaged about 136 incidents per week. This week they responded to 86. They’ve averaged 83 over the past three weeks.

“(I)ncident volume has gone down considerably,” Lake City Police Sgt. Bill Weist said in an email Tuesday, “which stands to reason since most people are doing a really good job of staying home and observing physical distancing.”

Lake City Police officers are still available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to take calls for service or complaints during the COVID-19 pandemic, Weist said.

But they have made some adjustments to help reduce the chance of contracting or spreading the disease.

“Like everyone else we are trying to minimize our contact with people right now,” he said. “That means that whenever possible we try to take calls for service over the phone, or meet people outside of their homes so that physical distancing can be observed. There are, however, some calls that still require and officer to be there in person to take photographs, gather evidence, or other things.”