NEW ORLEANS — Speaking outside the New Orleans Police Headquarters on Friday morning, NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson pleaded to the public to stop gatherings, however small, and stay inside during the pandemic.
According to the superintendent, the NOPD has received more than 800 calls reporting gatherings around the city to their 311 permitting hotline in the past weeks.
Ferguson said almost all of these gatherings were informal meeting between a few people that were broken up by officers without incident. He said residents are mostly "doing what southerners do," spending quality time together, but are at too close a distance.
The chief said the calls have been unlike the 100-person second line last week that resulted in an arrest of the alleged organizer, a situation he called unfortunate.
"There's so much more we must do to flatten the curve," he said.
Curfew is not off the table, the chief said, but Friday was a plea with business owners and citizens to work with the police so they don't have to "escalate" their enforcement.
Ferguson said businesses, most of which have adhered to social distancing orders, need to stop these small gathering outside their stores.
"Take some responsibility and encourage it on the outside, like you're already doing on the inside," he said.
Ferguson said the weather has also made things harder for people to resist going outside and gathering with each other.
"Ride your bike, take a walk, but do it while social distancing. Get out, get your exercise and get back in," he said. "There's so much more that we can and must do to flatten this curve."
At least five parishes in Southeast Louisiana have established a nightly curfew for the duration of the pandemic.
When asked about the possibility of new White House recommendations on face masks, Ferguson said NOPD officers had masks supplied to them by the city and by the Fraternal Order of Police and would use them accordingly.
The week before last, at least five NOPD employees had tested positive for COVID-19 and more than 50 were being quarantined as a result.
NOPD officers will also begin wearing their tactical duty kits rather than regular uniforms, officials announced yesterday.
The police department wanted to reassure residents: While their uniforms are changing, the day-to-day duties of police officers will remain the same.
"We want to assure the citizens of New Orleans that there is no heightened state of alert and no fundamental change in policing ahead," officials said in a statement.
The switch will allow police officers to wash their uniforms at home rather than having to find a dry cleaner, the release said Typically worn by NOPD officers in response to hurricanes, tactical duty uniforms are much more durable.
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