During this pandemic, your Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Office has remained open and focused on protecting and serving Bartholomew County.
BCSO teams have implemented many actions, procedures and protocols well ahead of the federal and state authorities. These aggressive actions are making a real difference and we wanted to share some of these actions with the community so you would know that we are aggressive and vigilant in our approach.
Your sheriff’s office through proactive leadership and the aggressive implementation of best practice safety/medical procedures, we have been largely successful in controlling the spread during this pandemic at the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Office.
From the very beginning, we adopted a five-point COVID-19 action plan focusing on each to allow overall success.
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The five points of focus have served as a framework for all of our actions to make sure our attack plan was both effective and balanced across these critical priorities.
- Protect the public
- Protect the employees
- Protect the inmates
- Partner with outside agencies
- Engage the community
Our response to this pandemic started on March 1, which was well ahead of mandates from state and federal officials. Our national law enforcement network is very active and we started learning early on the challenges being faced in the communities that were impacted early from COVID-19.
We learned that law enforcement and other first responders were becoming infected requiring them to quickly react and adjust. The learning from these larger communities allowed BCSO to adjust to the new realities and prevent falling victim to some of the same impacts. While things have not been perfect, we are proud of the early actions we have taken and the positive results we are able to share now.
Protect the public (this is our oath and our duty):
● The teams have not missed one shift nor have we been short staffed on any days/shifts since we started this journey. This fact means that when you call, we can and will respond.
● We have focused on the highest priority patrol actions, responses to domestic violence, theft, impaired driving have never been relaxed.
● We kept our front desk open to allow anyone from the community to come to share their concerns or requested service. Things like continuing to service each and every requested handgun permit and requesting public copies of accident forms have never been paused.
● One of the creative things we learned from other communities was the new phone response unit approach. We deployed this structure and have found that many of our calls for service can be handled over the phone. This no contact approach is a learning that we may expand even after the virus reaction.
● We have been aggressive at using all forms of communication to the public on our status and key issues facing the community. We cannot be successful unless we are partnered with the community and keep the lines of communications open. We are however lacking the public forums that we have used in the past. You can be assured that as soon as it is safe we will restart these open and two way forums.
Protect the employees:
● This was a priority from day one. We armed all employees with the proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) required to respond with confidence. While supplies were tight from the very start we are happy to say that employees were not asked to work without the right PPE to protect themselves and others. Many people have commented on social media about the visible changes that they saw in our staff when we always had gloves and masks.
● Detailed and aggressive procedures were put in place for deep cleaning of our facility. Our BCSO janitorial staff are unsung heroes for their diligence and thorough work. Our work spaces have never been cleaner than they are today.
● Aggressive scheduling for our road patrol allowed proper coverage on every shift and gave instant access to people who were on call and ready to activate at a moments notice. We have used this activation process two times already in May and it has worked seamlessly when extra help is needed
● We activated the reserve deputies to increase their duty load and used many of these great volunteers to be a part of the “on call” service. The reserves have always been and will continue to be an important part of BCSO.
Protect the inmates (this was an extreme risk for Bartholomew County):
● Our Corrections staff implemented aggressive and significant protocols to protect themselves and the inmates that are incarcerated in our facility.
● Constant temperature checks and health screens allows early detection and isolation when required.
● We placed hand sanitizer stations in many of our high traffic areas to give easy access to hand sanitizer application. We also supplied masks to our staff and all inmates.
● We changed our protocols of screening prior to any inmate making it past the booking area. In many cases the individuals were screened by trained medical personnel before integration into the jail population.
● One significant bright spot is our female inmates wanting to help in some way. These women have worked tirelessly to sew face masks for officers, inmates and visitors. The commitment to this task has been awe, inspiring and is a true example of people working together when we need it most. Many of our leadership has been wearing masks made by these inmates.
Partner with outside agencies (we are part of a larger emergency response community):
● Leaders from all responding agencies have shared the plans and the protocols so each agency understands and benefits from the new realities.
● Our county dispatch teams implemented a verbal screening of each person that calls for service so each responding agency knows when the risk is higher for extra precautions to be taken. This may sound small but it has been a real game changer to hear the dispatcher inform responding units of the health risk levels for each call.
● The leadership at BCSO partnered with the county commissioners, county council and the county auditor to keep them informed and involved in that rapidly changing landscape. All have been helpful in implementing the changes required to keep the community and our employees safe. There have been many late night and weekend calls to people like Pia O’Connor, Carl Lienhoop, Mark Gorbett, Jorge Morales and Laura DeDominic for help and advice. Our county government is working together better than ever!
Engage the community (when we ask the community always steps up):
● It’s likely a mistake to single out any one individual or group for all the donations on food and items we need. We would like to say a big thanks to all community members that stepped up and donated masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer for our teams. From local distilleries who donated hand sanitizer to our many community seamstresses that responded without even being asked.
● It has been noted that most everyone in the community adhered to the stay at home order allowing lighter traffic than normal. These decisions by the thousands of the people that live here made a big difference
● Last but not least are the constant prayers and well wishes from area clergy and congregations. The deputies noticed the small cards that were placed in their mailboxes saying an entire congregation was praying for their safety. This has been inspiring to say the least.
We are happy to report that during this crisis, we have not had one deputy who has been infected. We have had four Corrections officers that we had to ask to self-isolate and only two inmates have tested positive. The two inmates who tested positive were transported to our facility from Cook County in Chicago, Illinois, they were quarantined upon arrival to keep the rest of the inmates and staff safe.
We are in the middle of this crisis and not at the end, but we wanted everyone to know that we are taking aggressive steps during difficult times and have great results to share to date. Please continue to support our teams as we work hard every day to protect and serve you.
