Safe and Secure Detroit, Inc.

The Pandemic Flu...

Right now across America, public health officials in local muncipalities are making plans to combat a sweeping epidemic loosely known as the Pandemic Flu. 

These pervasive flu epidemics have, in the past, decimated thriving civilizations, as scores of people died in small villages within days of each other, succumbing to virulent strains of the flu. 

The common belief is that it is time for another episode of this magnitude. 

To find away to limit the spread of this disease, a concept called social distancing is being considered as a cornerstone of the plan.  Basically, limit the exposure that you have to other persons, and you will decrease the chance that you will contract the disease. 

By spreading out, or regulating contact, we will keep down the chances that millions will die in the course of the epidemic. 

But our society is built on contact with others.

Food, clothing, worship, family, school, and sport are built on the premise that we have a need for togetherness. 

Will our need for social contact withstand the exigent situation of a pandemic flu?  Will in-place sheltering and social distancing allow for isolation that could ultimatly be harmful?  Will roving mauarders attack people in lonely outposts, only to be discovered in subsequent months?

Will the public health crisis give way to a public safety crisis? 

In planning for such events, police departments will need specialized training in riot control during public health emergencies. 

How many big city departments have the proper riot control gear to protect officers from infection? procedures for decontamination? Set aside plans for vaccination of frontline officers?  

I question how law enforcement agencies will prepare for this, as much planning seems to target the health side of this issue.

Can we truly distance ourselves from the social ills that this pandemic will cause? 

Our togetherness is what gives us sanctuary from the isolation that pits predator against prey.  It is the community in policing that makes it work, not the barriers that people suggest we must erect to nullify crime.

I would encorage people who are planning for this potential emergency to consider what the needs of limited or regulated contact means. 

Let's not trade one emergency for another one; social distancing should not rent the social fabric that  holds us together.  There is a better way.