A Message from the Stonington Police Department

As you know, the COVID-19 Coronavirus has required us to change the way we interact with each other. As a country, we’ve been told to practice social distancing, wash our hands, and clean areas that we touch with disinfectant.

The Stonington Police Department strives to be a full-service police department, offering services that many agencies do not in order to serve our town better. Due to the COVID-19 Coronavirus, many of our services and common practices will temporarily be curtailed or eliminated.

What will need to change? Our Officers have to enter into situations where they may come in contact with infected persons, and then might come in contact with you. For your safety and ours, we are instituting some different ways of interaction with those we serve to do what we can to slow down or avoid the spread of COVID-19.

The Police Department lobby is open, but our Community Room is closed. If you have a complaint, an Officer may speak with you through the lobby/Dispatch glass or lobby phone, you can hand items back and forth through the slot in the dispatch window. Open face-to-face contact will be severely limited and discouraged.

Dispatchers will screen phone calls into the PD and will now ask some additional questions of persons that are requesting police/Fire/EMS Services.

• Are you sick?
• Are you feverish?
• Do you have a dry cough?
• Have you traveled out of the country in the last 14 days?
• Have you been in recent contact with anyone with COVID-19/Corona virus?

Officers will try to maintain a 6-foot distance at all calls with people. Yes, this will be awkward to do, and it may not be feasible in many situations, but we will do what we can and ask that you do too. When you call, the dispatcher may tell you exit your house, car, or business when the Officer arrives to speak with the police outside. This allows Officers to maintain distance from you and speak to them outdoors, where the communication of COVID-19 is less likely. This is especially important for welfare checks – Dispatchers will get information from the reporting party or family members outside before entering.

Reporting of incidents – If you have a complaint, we will handle it, but it will just be done in a different manner. Currently if you call, we almost always send an Officer to your house, place of business, etc. as we have always felt that you deserve individualized attention from us. Different situations call for different responses, so we will proceed as follows;

• If a person calls in with a complaint, Dispatch will vet the complaint and the on-duty supervisor may decide if the Officer will physically respond to the complainant. Dispatch will start a CAD number as usual, and the call will proceed as follows:
  • Taking the complaint via phone (preferred.)
  • Direct the complainant to meet the Officer outside.
• Follow up complaints – done by Detectives, Support Officers or Patrol may be by phone, but again may require meeting the Officer outside if possible.

Motor vehicle lockouts – we will not be responding to lockouts unless there is a child, special needs person, etc. in the car, or some other unforeseen event.

We’ve instituted many other changes with the State, the court system, and internal processes that help the flow of law enforcement paperwork and arrest procedures.

These are different times, as we all band together to try to slow the flow of this virus. Our practices may temporarily change, but we will do everything we can to continue to offer our best service to you. Above all, if you have an active emergency, we will respond to you and help.