#18 COVIDCalls 4.8.2020 - Emergency Management Update & COVID-19 and Crime

What role do the police have in public health crises? How have crime patterns shifted in the wake of shelter-in place orders? What is the state of the pandemic from the point of view of emergency managers in early April 2020?

Dr. Samantha Montano, assistant professor in Emergency Management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy (formerly University of Nebraska-Omaha), rejoins to discuss the lack of a coordinated response to the pandemic, the frustration felt by emergency managers, and the mixed messages from the federal government as of April 2020. Dr. Robert J. Kane, professor and head of the Department of Criminology and Justice Studies at Drexel University, discusses how the pandemic intersects with crime and policing. Dr. Kane discusses the difficulties of collecting crime data in the early pandemic and the rise of crimes within the household (such as domestic violence) during shelter-in-place orders. Dr. Kane also explains the role of the Police in enforcing public health measures, as well as the potential roles they could play in the pandemic outside of a traditional enforcement rubric. He talks about the ways in which police in America are in danger from the virus, but also how police practices themselves can hinder public health efforts.

On this episode musicians Adam Schlesinger, Ellis Marsalis Jr.,  John “Bucky” Pizzarelli, and John Prine are remembered after passing from COVID-19.

For further reading:

Improvising Disaster

“New York Police Fight Coronavirus in Department as 1 in 5 Go Out Sick”