Peace or Panic? A Mid-COVID Chat with TC Police Chief O'Brien

By Patrick Sullivan | April 18, 2020

Even before Friday, March 13 — the day Michigan went into a semi-lockdown and schools across the state shut their doors — local officials were devising a plan for handling the quickly approaching crisis.

Traverse City Police Chief Jeff O’Brien said he and other local officials had been in planning mode, holding meetings, watching webinars, and learning whatever they could from other police departments to prepare for this totally unprecedented event.
So far, their efforts have paid off. Members of O’Brien’s department, along with the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office, with which they share headquarters, have had no coronavirus positives yet, despite continuing to patrol the streets and arresting people who misbehave.

Northern Express talked over the phone with O’Brien exactly one month into the crisis — on April 13 — to learn what’s happening in Traverse City after dark, how the coronavirus lockdown has changed policing and public safety, and whether people should be worried about a breakdown in law and order.

No need to wait for the answer to that last question: O’Brien’s answer is an emphatic no — and for that he credits the judicious coordination among city and county officials, fire departments and law enforcement, the emergency manager, the health department, and representatives of just about every large organization in the region.
“As a whole through this Joint Operations Committee, I feel we have a good support system in place to assist with civil order,” O’ Brien said.
 
Northern Express: The strangeness and uncertainty of this crisis has people on edge. What does it look like from your vantage point?
 
Chief Jeff O’Brien: As a chief, I can plan for a lot of dangers. I can plan for civil disobedience. I can plan for parades. I can plan for a lot of things, but it’s really difficult to plan for a pandemic. It’s the great unknown. So, what I’ve been taught to do in my training is to look at what other people have done, because we learn by modeling other people. So right away when this thing hit, Capt. [Jim] Bussell and Capt. [Keith] Gillis and I, we were on webinars, we looked at anything we could possibly read from Washington, from California, from New Jersey — they’re just ahead of us. What those law enforcement officers were doing there, we just took their models and implemented them here.
 
Express: How do you think the stay-at-home order is going? How do you think people are handling it?
 
O’Brien: We have to make some of these sacrifices now in our freedoms to save people’s lives. This is not a joke. This is very, very real, and we need to take our advice from the health officials that are advising us. The health department and the health officials don’t have the capacity to make law. The governor has the capacity to make that law, under the Emergency Management Act, which goes back to the mid-1970s. Now, there is a check and balance there. The legislature has to approve it. And she just went back, she wanted 70 days, and they said, “No, we’ll give you 23, and then we’ll reassess.” So, there’s a check and balance — she’s not going to rule Michigan. She has the best interest of Michigan at heart; she’s just the person who has to give the message. I don’t own a business. I know those folks are frustrated, and some of them are probably going to go bankrupt. This is totally a game-changer in our society. How we come out of this, it will be really interesting. A lot of the gun people are also complaining, because we do inspections, and they’ve been suspended because we’re not really open. However, within that act, the Emergency Management Act, she cannot take guns away, she cannot confiscate weapons. It’s right in that act. So that safety net is there, too. She’s not coming after our guns.
 
Express: It sounds like you’ve heard a lot of the pushback over the governor’s orders.
 
O’Brien: I think it’s important for people to know that it’s temporary. Now, if these restrictions go beyond the COVID outbreak, then I’ll be the first in line to redress the government. It’s important that the citizens here in Traverse City understand that police officers here take an oath to uphold the Constitution. And we’re going to do that. We’re not going to violate the Constitution. That’s our main focus. Every day we go to work, we swear an oath, we swear to protect it, and that’s what we’re going to do, so I hope people feel comfortable in our community that that’s what we’re about.
 
Express: How are you doing? How is everyone’s health?

O’Brien: Knock on wood, we have not had a COVID positive as of yet. The sheriff’s department, which we share a building with, hasn’t had one. The fire department doesn’t have any positive cases. I have great team here, and my command officers have come up with some brilliant ideas about how we schedule our people and how we can keep them safe. But health-wise, we’re good. Of course, like everyone else, when you look at yourself, your mortality, I think I’ve really reassessed my priorities in life, and what was really important a month ago is not so important to me as other things are. To have time to slow down and to reflect and to think, and to really kick out a lot of the false gods in my life, it’s been very reflective and very refreshing to me personally. It’s something that everyone has probably gone through, I would think.
 
Express: Have you been able to get the department equipped with the gear you need?
 
O’Brien: We were able to find N95 masks. The supply side is a little bit strained, and we’re working on that. Once you declare a state of emergency, which the state has, the county has, then it goes through the federal government. With the scope of this — 50 states in a state of emergency — [the federal government is] focusing on the hot spots, getting that personal protection equipment to those areas that really need it first, because you burn through that stuff really quick. But we’ve been educating ourselves on how to reuse it and decontaminate it. We’ve put in a decontamination site in the city, a place isolated for officers to shower, where they can send their laundry. So we feel that we have a pretty good plan in place. But I’m hoping that we don’t get a lot of positives here in Grand Traverse County.

Express: It seems like there are so few people out nowadays, especially late. Are people out getting into trouble? What are officers seeing?
 
O’Brien: I took a one-month review since this happened — we consider March 13 the start of this, so I looked through April 13 and, really, the biggest calls that we’ve done have been self-initiated by the officers. We had about 270 calls that were just property inspections. We’re just getting out of the cars and looking at businesses and making sure they’re not B&E’d. That incident downtown [windows at several local businesses were shattered in early April], we caught that individual. We’re trying to link them together. We’re trying to build a case, starting with Brick Wheels and then a few other businesses downtown.
 
Express: Looking at court records over the last month, it seems like there have been more shoplifting cases than usual in Grand Traverse County. Have you noticed that?
 
O’Brien: I would think that. We don’t have much retail anymore here though.
 
Express: Those must be happening at the bigger retailers in the county.
 
O’Brien: We only have, what, three grocery stores [in the City of Traverse City]? Three major grocery stores — Tom’s East and West, and then Family Fare. So, I am not seeing a lot of larcenies or retail fraud. We had four in the month, we had about nine larcenies, a few assaults. I’d say disorderly conduct is still a major crime that we deal with. We’ve had about 100 of those, and then suspicious situations. We’re getting a few of those calls for people that are congregating, and we’re just telling them that they need to break up, they need to keep it under 10 [people], keep your social distancing.
 
Express: Nobody’s throwing big, wild parties?
 
O’Brien: No, not at all. You know, it’s really subdued. It’s kind of eerie around town. It’s just, there’s nobody out and about. We’re a little concerned if this goes on much longer and then the weather gets nice, and people start going to the beach, then we’ll have to make sure that people keep their distance down there also.
 
Express: What about domestic violence cases? I know there’s been a big uptick in them across the state because of the stay-at-home order. What services are available for people who are at risk at home?
 
O’Brien: I don’t think we’re particularly seeing an upswing in domestic violence. We deal with domestic violence every day, even before this. There’s not a day where we don’t deal with a domestic violence situation. Not all of them end up in arrests — a lot of them are just arguments. It’s not doubled or anything. We have taken a few people to jail during this last month. It is really concerning, though. If someone is isolated, now they are isolated even more. The Women’s Resource Center does have openings in their shelter. And they also have a hotline number. That’s (231) 941-1210. There is a national domestic violence hotline, that’s (800) 799-7233. So, there’s still support out there, and it’s important that people understand that. They need to call.
 
Express: Following the closure of the homeless shelter Safe Harbor, what’s going on with the homeless population? How do the police keep that population safe under these circumstances?

O’Brien: We had tried to keep that shelter open as long as possible, and I know Mr. [Marty] Colburn [Traverse City’s city manager] went one-on-one with Safe Harbor, with [board members] George Thompson and Mike McDonald, to keep it open, and then it just got to the point that logistically, with Goodwill, which provides a lot of support to them with paid employees, and then their doctor just said, “You know, this is just not safe, to house them in such close proximity.” We tried a tent outside to feed them, and then it just got to the point where, with the scope of this, we just can’t do it. It’s more harm than good to keep it open.
 
Express: The volunteers that run Safe Harbor are usually older, and many of them would have been in a high-risk group, so there weren’t really any good options, were there?
 
O’Brien: They lost that whole volunteer base. That was gone because a lot of them had to isolate. We were hoping that when the younger people came back from college maybe they would step up, and that didn’t necessarily happen. We’re still providing support to [homeless people] in the field. They are in tents. They’re in the field where our homeless people go in the summer. I feel confident that Goodwill and Safe Harbor, that they have a very good grasp on it, and they are making sure people’s needs are met, and their medical needs are met. It’s reassuring.
 
Express: This crisis must have already severely impacted the recovery community. When people need substance abuse help these days, where do you refer them? There aren’t the options that were there a month ago, are there?
 
O’Brien: No, not really. We’ve had several overdoses within the month, and we’ve taken them to the hospital. The Hope Not Handcuffs group, we met last week. We did a Zoom meeting. We’re still going forward. I think from what I’ve seen, Matt Zerilli [from what org?], and Madeline Begley from Addiction Treatment Services, they do a talk every morning on Facebook. The support is still there, it’s just there electronically. It hasn’t broken down, let me put it that way. They are doing a great job making sure everybody still has their support system.
 
Express: What's something most people aren’t doing but should be doing? What’s something most people are doing but shouldn’t be doing?
 
O’Brien: I think everybody has been very well behaved. I would really suggest that, in order for everybody to keep their sanity, that they look at getting out and walking. People should continue to exercise. They should go out and walk and run, they should be able to go out on hikes and use our nature trails. My family has been quarantined from the beginning of this. They’re just doing a lot of crafts, a lot of art, puzzles. My oldest son has been helping his grandmother — my wife’s mom — with technology, just keeping her up to speed on the computer and printer. She’s been shut in for over a month all by herself. She lives alone, so it’s really important that we teach that generation how to use that technology to connect. But I really think people are just really kind of mellow. I see a lot of patience in people, whereas before I didn’t see that much patience. I’m seeing a lot of understanding, a lot of kindness. That’s the feeling that I’m getting.
 
Express: People have realized that they have to take stock of their priorities.
 
O’Brien: I hope it stays that way. I hope that can continue after this passes. And it will pass. I hope that we can reflect on ourselves and think, That wasn’t so bad. When I went to the bank, people smiled, and they were nice, and when I went to the grocery store, people were smiling, they were nice.