that is only part of what we do. ,e also archived television also international television. if you go to tv.archives.org, you can search what people said. the idea is to make it so people contrast, compare and think critically about what happened on television. >>, also international television. watched the communicators tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span 2. by even casstevens. he serves as president of the international association of chiefs of police. when it comes to law enforcement, in the age of coronavirus, how much has policing had to change? guest: first of all, thanks for having me. we have not seen reasons to make operational changes like this to our everyday business or 102

years. -- for 102 years. we have completely, law-enforcement, changed the way we do business on a daily basis. we have civilian personnel working from home. we conducted daily briefings and roll calls either outside, distance six feet apart or more, or conduct them ella john ackley. -- electronically. we are taking more police reports over the phone or directing people to online police reporting, stopped all of our classroom training. we are really changing the way we do business. reassigning people from specialty positions back to patrol to fill in for those positions being vacated because officers are sick. host: what is the international association of chiefs of police and what are you telling departments around the country on how to keep officers safe themselves during this crisis? guest: the iacp is the largest

and oldest law enforcement leadership organization in the world. 1893 informed in chicago. we have over 31,000 numbers in 150 five countries, and we are not just chiefs of police. we are law-enforcement leaders and future leaders. right now, we are doing our best to provide good guidance and information to all of our law enforcement members all over the globe. host: a headline from "the new york times" from last week. the virus' toll on the new york police department. 1 in 6 police officers are out sick. what advice are you giving to the new york police department or other departments? guest: it is even worse than that. that is a great example. we have an issue all over of officers being infected or they are under the investigation of

being infected, they have to be in quarantine. --d had over 1400 pop officers that tested positive and have over 6000 out sick and had five employees die from corona. detroit, similar. over 600 officers from detroit pdr quarantined. more than 1/5 of their agency. they have officers who have died, similar to chicago -- chicago has 600 officers quarantined and two officers have died. this is a serious scenario for law enforcement. people, weike other cannot work from home. we cannot work remotely. police officers have to continue to be out there every day to protect and serve our public. really by the nature of our job -- merely by the nature of our job, it is very difficult to

practice social distancing, especially in a scenario where we have to come into contact with people. some of the information we are providing is we want to make sure all member agencies have enough ppe, which clearly has been a problem in some areas of the country. the difficulty for some agencies that have been contacting me is they are not able to gather information from their state or county health departments on addresses within their communities where the health apartment knows people have already tested positive. that would be great information for first responders to know before they go to these households. and since they are not getting these information, they are forced to use ppe and every call for service, and ppe is getting hard to come by in some agencies. host: policing in the age of coronavirus is our topic until the end of the program. steven casstevens is with us.

he heads up the international association of chiefs of police. (202) 748-8000 if you live in eastern or central time zones and want to call in. (202) 748-8001 if you are in the mountain or pacific regions. a special line set aside for law enforcement in this segment, (202) 748-8002. your calls in a second. chief casstevens, what do we know about crime rates right now? guest: well, that is interesting. i read reports of crime rates going down, but certain crimes are going up as well. first thing we have to make sure, when we are jerking -- when we are talking crime rates. there are crimes and there are police calls for service. please calls or service are 911 calls, whether emergency or not rigid -- or not emergency, that requires a police response. crime has gone down in many

communities. total police calls for service have gone down even more. a lot of those are self initiated things, like officers making traffic stops that may arrest or adrug suspended or revoked license arrest. most agencies are reducing or totally seizing these kinds of personal contact with the public to try to maintain the social distancing that everybody else's trying to do. newport,y out of kentucky. caller: i would like to thank you for our first responders are always there. people complain a lot, but you are the first ones they always call. i just want to tell you that, from the bottom of my heart, everybody in kentucky, and i know, the nation. that is about what i had to say. thank you. guest: thank you.

we appreciate that. it is something a lot of law-enforcement agencies do not hear enough of. we know the public appreciates what we do. again, we are in difficult times and ask for patience from residents and our jurisdictions. it is not business as usual. they may be used to see police officers walking the beat or police officers in two-person cars in their neighborhoods or police officers always coming to their home, no matter what crime they are reporting. and right now, we are asking them to handle these incidents in a much different manner. we ask for their patients. -- patience. host: to madison, illinois. richard. caller: thank you for taking the call. thell in reference to officers, firefighters, first responders, when they get calls to these different homes or

wherever, they are going into hazardous incidents. i think they should be told upfront, if it is known it is a possible infection. hipaauld supersede the responsibility. i have a relative now that works , and theyng facility lied to the people, told them they did not have any active cases, to get those people to come to work, only to find out, later, there were, indeed, active cases. now about 15 of them are pointing. host: go ahead. finish your comment. caller: about 15 of them are being quarantined, which infects even my household, because my relative lives with me. also, are we considering what the impact of the activity of bugs will have on corona.

as they become more active, they could possibly be a carrier. host: thank you for your story. guest: that is a great question. depending where you are in the country, there are a lot of law enforcement agencies struggling with exactly that issue. to try to wrap up that question, in illinois, the attorney general made a statement that protected health information under hipaa does not apply in this type of emergency situation. but law enforcement and first responders are not looking for everybody's name and date of birth and social security number and all this information. all we are looking for is for our health departments to share the information with our public answering points, our police dispatchers, of just the addresses of people who are known to have tested positive or

have tested and are under investigation to see if they are positive. if they can share those addresses, with police dispatchers, and those dispatchers can just alert police or fire personnel responding to a call whether it is a medical call, domestic violence or any other call, to let us know in advance, you are helping to protect our officers. the issue is, in some states, the attorney general has said, yes, you can lease information to law enforcement. the local and state health departments, in many cases, are saying, no, it is still protected information. it is still a battle of trying to get important information to first responders. without that important information, first responders naturally have two assume any residence they may enter may be .i., so positive or p.u

they have to use their personal protective equipment on every call. this is a problem because we are using up a lot of this equipment. liz in kingston, north carolina. good morning. caller: hello? host: you are on with chief casstevens. have a my question is i , anddy order for my child the area he is going in -- the area has very high virus than the lower county. my child is four years old. i am trying to see why they do .ot stop this visitation casstevens? guest: i've have heard several

stories in the past week of child custody scenarios, where it may be shared custody between divorced parents who live in separate cities or separate counties, and people are struggling on whether they should continue to transfer their child back and forth and possibly subject the child to exposure in one location or another. this is a difficult scenario. than one child custody attorney give opinions on this, and they vary throughout the states. i would hesitate to give you legal advice that may get you in trouble with a court order, because child custody is based on a court order, signed by a judge. so my first advice is to contact the port clerk's office, the judge that issued that order, and see if they can modify that order for the next weeks. host: a minute ago, you were

talking about crime rates amid the coronavirus endemic. can you talk about a specific type of crime -- domestic violence calls. is that something you are seeing an uptick of with everybody stuck together at home, in houses? guest: absolutely. an increase in domestic violence calls is an unfortunate consequence of the issues we are all facing. people are being told to stay at home, not to go outside unless absolutely necessary. they are used to going to work every day. so some people have been cooped up in their homes or apartments for quite some time. they are getting a little antsy. they want to get out. sometimes, tempers flare. we are seeing an increase in calls for service about domestic violence. not only is this an unfortunate consequent for this whole scenario, but it is also one of the most dangerous calls for

service a police officer can go on. we really have no clue what we are walking into. we do not know if it is only a verbal argument or if there are weapons inside the house, if there is intoxication. this is a dangerous call for law enforcement. host: chief casstevens joining us from buffalo -- buffalo 's police department in illinois. taking your calls on lines set up regionally and the special line set up or law enforcement, (202) 748-8002. taking your questions and comments. tom out of leesburg, virginia. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for your service, chief. thank you, c-span. i am concerned about how much scenario planning is going on. when you start thinking of, for example, wildfires out west and situations like that, where there is going to be a lot of issues with evacuating people,

where you put them, all that, i am just worried about that mix, which is already a big problem. then, do you throw the coronavirus, especially when they will have to shelter people in buildings where they cannot shelter -- and you mentioned domestic violence. maryland came out and said they will stop selling alcohol here soon. i would be curious how that will affect what law enforcement has to do. guest: thank you. i appreciate it, and i appreciate the call. it is interesting, when you start throwing emergencies on top of each other. i am thankful we have agencies like fema and our state emergency management agencies, who practice this kind of scenarios every year. but as you say, when you have issues piled on top of each other like this, there are some scenarios where we are being forced to fly the plane while still building the plane.

think, areies, i doing a great job supporting law enforcement and first responders around the country. it is merely a job of practicing the coordination that all of us have done over the years, hoping that a scenario like this would not happen. but again, we have not seen anything like this in 102 years. regarding alcohol sales in some states, i've seen some of those reports as well. this varies throughout the country. some are reporting a closing of liquor stores. some are reporting only drive up purchases, things of that nature. it is notalways, -- always alcohol that contributes to domestic violence. there are countless things that contribute to a domestic violence situation. but, again, or big ask for foridents -- our big ask

residences keep calm. keep distance. take time to go out for a walk. everybody's tensions are high. sometimes, we just need to do simple things like that to relieve our tensions and relax. host: with 41 states under state orders, how aggressively should police departments be enforcing those? what sort of guidance are you giving to chiefs around the country? guest: that is an interesting and a great question. much like many things in this covert scenario, things are completely different from state to state. for example, i was conversing with a colleague of mine in hawaii. gave anaii's governor executive order, the way the rule of law works in hawaii, the executive order is tantamount to law. so as soon as the executive order is signed, it is essentially a law which is enforceable. there are many other states not

situated like that. so a governor may declare a and illegal order congregations of 10 or more, but officers are being put in positions where there are no laws on the books currently being violated. there is no chapter or verse or code for an unnecessary or improper gathering based on an executive order. so officers are being put in a tough situation in many states now. but, at the end of the day, no matter what state you are in, we are simply asking people to use common sense. police yourselves. the last thing a law enforcement officer wants to do is break up a scenario of someone in their backyard having 15 to 20 neighbors over for a bonfire or having 15 or 20 people in a park playing soccer or basketball. law enforcement should not be

coming over there and telling you to go home. people should already know this. we have been in this scenario long enough. so law-enforcement are asking people to please police yourself. understand this is serious. this virus does not move by itself. it takes people to move the virus. if people stop moving, the virus stops moving. then we win. host: tom is in california. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. the one thing i would like to talk about is we have no options except to call the police. i think that is a failure of our system. we need a number where i can call a doctor and get a nurse and a health-care person to come take care of me when i have a health care problem and leave the policein

station where they belong, because there is no crime committed. all we have is 911. at police, fire truck, an ambulance, and all we need is someone who cares about taking care of the people, not shooting us for asking for help. the other thing is the police are there to make money. war on drugs. let's comment on that. host: we will let chief casstevens jump in. guest: again, it varies state to state. but people often look to law enforcement as the government agency of last resort. we are always open, 24/7. in this scenario, a lot of municipal buildings have closed for the coronavirus. city halls are closed, health departments may be partially closed. a lot of municipal building shut

except for- essential services. so people are frustrated and are left with the police to call. that is not a problem for us. we have police social workers. we have civilian personnel that can help direct proper social services or medical services to these residents in need without having to send a police car. i would say, depending where you reside, it is ok to still call the police, but what they will probably do is direct you to other social services, so you do not have to have a police officer respond for a health issue. host: to central city, kentucky. good morning. caller: good morning. i have two comments. first on the subject of transporting children from one place to another during this pandemic, parents, love your kids enough to love them more than yourself and put your

welfare first -- their welfare first. my second comment is thank you to all the first responders for taking care of us. and also, there is another line of workers also on the front lines that you do not hear about. , who are alsos going out and in public, responding to calls, to make sure that our children are taking care of. host: thanks. guest: absolutely true. we cannot forget our child protective services. we cannot forget not just and doctors, ems, and nurses -- the mailman or milliman who continues to deliver your mail. medications and things like that. they are still showing up every day, showing up to work. our call is right. we have to remember to protect our children. they are incredibly vulnerable.

that protection goes down to taking sanitation wipes, cleaning down child car seats you are transporting children in , cleaning out your car when you get in it, wiping down your steering wheel, your steering column, everywhere the virus can be transmitted. when you are receiving boxes in the mail, we have all heard reports of the virus can survive on cardboard for a certain amount of time. wipe down the cardboard before you bring packages into the home. there is a lot you can do, simple things. jersey.ifton, new darren, good morning. caller: good morning. good morning, chief. appreciate the work you do. going back to talking about the hippo laws and foregoing hippo laws in order to identify people that have the coronavirus. i do not think the law and the police should have the right to

forgo hippo laws that were put in place -- when they were put in place, they thought about the police, but they were put in place to protect the identity be -- so that people would not be discriminated against for health conditions. i understand that first responders are in harm's way. however, that is part of the job. when those patients are at hospitals, it is there that they are deemed to be people that have corona. thank you. guest: sure. thank you for the call. you make a good point. there is a valid reason for hippo to be there. to protect the individual health information. but i will clarify that law enforcement is not looking for names and dates of birth. we are not looking for exact, individual information to identify people. what we are asking for his household, addresses, of either people that the health department have known to be test

positive or persons under investigation. they may be quarantined, they may be tested or waiting for results. the reason that is important is we are trying to protect first responders. police officers and firefighters are dropping by the hundreds and thousands, unable to serve the community, because they are or haver -- p.u.i. contracted the virus. we are trying to protect as many people, including police and fire. hipaa has specific language that says this prohibited health information can be released through health departments to atice and fire dispatchers

public accessing points. that information in a crisis like this, that would help to prevent the spread, it is ok to release this limited information. you are not giving it to police. you are giving it to dispatchers. covertlyrs will give it to officers or they will not speak it out over the radio where people can hear it. they will send it to laptops in officers' cars, so at least they know they have to put on their n95 masks, have to put on gloves, have to take the precautions when they are walking into scenario where they know nothing. host: about 10 minutes left with the chief of the buffalo grove police department, president of the international association of chiefs of police. when this is over, whenever this is over, do you think it brings permanent changes to policing in

this country? guest: i think you may see some changes. what we are learning now is the setting changes we have had to make of not sending officers on calls that are not conical calls for service, are there holding them in the queue or contacting the caller back and saying you can take this report over the phone, we are happy to do that and send you a copy. most agencies, like buffalo grove, have a format on our website where you can report certain crimes through our format, and we can take police reports online. those reports will still be investigated and approved. you can print a copy for your insurance company, if you need it. there are a lot of things we will clearly take a look at and say maybe we should do these things more permanently, because this has become more efficient or as -- for us. host: heading out to delaware.

caller: good morning. i was wondering, on a positive note, if this could have a deterrent against sex trafficking? c-span.org that -- is a good question. we have seen a drop in crime and human trafficking, in drug a variety offor reasons. people do not want to come in direct contact, because they do not want to spread the virus, and police officers not answering other calls for service are actually having time to concentrate on some of these very serious crimes. tellnk it is too early to exactly how well this will affect certain crimes, but iacp is working with george mason university on gathering information from police departments, essentially what they have learned so far. we know the situation is a

challenge. we know there is a knowledge gap at a national level of how much law enforcement has been impacted and how they have been impacted. this has all happened very fast. iacp has taken a leadership role in this partnership with george mason to collect data. back, aout, it a while 25 point survey to member agencies in both the u.s. and canada. this is just a snapshot in time of law enforcement practice and procedures and what we are seeing. this is just for them to report activities between march 23. our survey just ended last friday, april 3. we are looking to go over this information right now, aggregate the data on a state and provincial level or canada, and hopefully share that data within this next week. host: when you do that, the place for people to look

iacp.org? guest: correct. host: andy in ohio, good morning. caller: good morning. how are you guys doing today? host: doing well. caller: i had a question. i know everybody is short on masks and stuff like that. i was wondering, i've never heard anybody say anything about army surplus stores. how come we have not tapped into that resource as far as personal protection? guest: there are a couple of reasons. a lot of the army surplus stores, the masks they have our gas masks -- are gas masks. many of them are outdated -- not that they could not be used in an emergency. what we are, interestingly, cn, not only in my agency, we are seeing a lot of private

donations of masks and gloves and hand sanitizer to our department. we are getting them from private citizens, from local businesses. a lot of law enforcement agencies are thankful that we are getting hundreds and thousands of donations from a variety of different businesses. we are even getting a lot of hand sanitizer donated from our friends in the distilled spirits industry that have changed from making distilled spirits to make a hand sanitizers and donating it to police departments. so kudos to them. host: richard out of boston. good morning. with a i am 70 years old compromised immune system, and i makes a lotbor that of cost of the police -- makes feel bad3:00 a.m. -- i calling the police, but i call

them for five times. they just go up to his door, and he says ok, and they go away. it will stop for a while. like i said, i feel bad calling, but i need to call because i need to sleep and i could get this thing. guest: i understand your predicament care there are a lot of people like yourself up in age and suffering from a variety of different ailments. they need to get there rest and sleep. it is frustrating when you hear your neighbors up in the early morning. you are doing the right thing by calling early -- your police. in boston, i know the commissioner there. he is a good man. i am sure his officers will continue to respond. on your next call, be sure to tell them how many times you call and the specifics besides each one of those and ask them to make direct contact with this person. i understand your predicament.

it can be very frustrating. host: let's see if we can fit in linda, who has been waiting in georgia. can you make it quick? caller: yes, hi. first, i want to say thank you to all first responders, especially police officers, because i have one in my family. what i wanted to say it is it good idea for the health department to give out the address of a possible covid-19 case, but, at the same time, dr. birx and dr. fauci both said they are estimating anywhere from 25% to 50% of people are a symptom addict -- a symptom addict -- asymptomatic. so, really, it does not matter. you have to consider all people as possible covid-19 cases. host: thank you. guest: thanks, linda. you make a good point.

first of all, we have to remember is we have 18,500 law enforcement agencies across the country. state police, county sheriff, tribal police, municipal agencies. anywhere from two or three officer agencies to tens of thousands of officer agencies. some of these agencies are lucky and well supplied with the. some have very little ppe. what they are trying to do is ration these masks and gloves and have the officers use them only on calls for service where they really feel they need it. if there is no sharing of information from local or county health department, they are forced to use ppe on every call for service, which means they are using up what limited supply they have, and they will be running out of supply with nowhere to turn. now they will be going out on calls with no protection. buffalo grove