As part of my job, I do a lot of traveling within a relatively confined area. In other words, it's not like long haul trucking where there's a start point with a destination several hundred miles away. Rather, I will have multiple stop points along a route that can end up around 300 miles round trip. Most of my routes are under that, but when I was really rolling before COVID-19, it wasn't unheard of for me to be filling up the van I use three to four times a week.
The areas I cover are mostly rural and thus smaller towns, with the main exception being Salem, which is also the capital of Oregon.
I'm on the freeway or a highway quite a bit, with some urban driving mixed in.
Before late March of this year, when our brand of COVID-19 lockdown went into effect, it was uncommon to see more than two police officers in a day, in any location. In fact, there were plenty of days where it didn't matter where I was, none were in sight.
After the lockdown started, though, I've witnessed a gradual increase in law enforcement visibility, to the point now, where it's not uncommon to see up to two or three different police cars in a day, again, regardless of where I am.
Today alone, just driving down a road that runs parallel to the freeway, one that gets traffic, but could hardly be considered a main thoroughfare, there were no less than four city police cars—three parked individually in separate driveways leading into businesses, and one that was running about a hundred yards ahead of us.
With all kinds of departments experiencing upheavals all across the country, and more police involved shootings continuing, with demands to defund the police reaching a fevered pitch, I'm wondering about all of the police presence here.
As far as I know, there hasn't been an increase of crime over the last nearly three months. Not in the areas I'm talking about. I haven't seen the police stopping more people. In fact, on the freeway, people have been driving at least 10 mph over the speed limit consistently since the lockdown began, as if the speed law had changed (without the signs), and yet, I haven't seen more people being stopped on the side of the road.
So, basically, the police are out there patrolling in greater numbers, but not necessarily doing anything more than being seen.
Over the last couple of weeks since the killing of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests resumed, the police presence has picked up even more, even though the actual marching hasn't really happened down here. Portland has been the main place, with some other cities having some larger events, but the last time I knew of a protest here, which was probably a week ago, there were three people holding signs.
It was suggested to me that maybe the police have been out and about more to justify their existence, but as I said, this began way before the protests and the most recent disenchantment with the police. I can't think of why they would be out in force more during the lockdown other than to make sure people were following the COVID-19 guidelines, but again, it wasn't like there were mobs of people anywhere that needed busting up. Not where I'm at, anyway.
It's not a topic I've seen discussed much here on HIVE, so I'm wondering—have you noticed a significant uptick in police presence in your area? I realize that my witnessing an increase in the areas where I travel isn't much more than anecdotal evidence, and there could be any of a number of reasons for it. Still, it's noticeable, and I'm wondering if it's just me or not.
Image Source—Pixabay
I noticed a severe lack of out of state license plates. No out of state motor homes. Very few tourist, but a ton of Alaskans on the roads. Police were absent for about a week, but pretty much normal for us other than that one week.
Hey, @bashadow.
Interesting. Okay, so basically everyone who was from out of state stayed home, while the residents got around as much as possible. I think except for the first week or two, where there weren't that many cars on the road, that's pretty much been the case here, too. Semi trucks never stopped. In fact, I think they've increased over time.
So, police visibility is about the same up there.
Yeah, no real change in police visibility. I think the borders in Canada are still somewhat closed, and I think we still have travel quarantine rules here in Alaska, so makes it hard for tourist.