Ruston Police Department adapts to new normal
The world was turned upside down when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March. Nobody was left unscathed, including police agencies. The Ruston Police Department, along with Lincoln Parish residents, had to adapt to a new normal in the COVID era.
“It changes your thought pattern and how you answer a call,” RPD Chief Steve Rogers said. “It puts a strain on your department and your personnel. Sometimes we might not have time to cover ourselves in protective gear because we make split-second decisions. Officers are worried every day with what they might take home with them.”
Police agencies across Louisiana are required to complete a certain amount of training each year. Because of guidelines set by the Center for Disease Control, training became difficult for the RPD.
“If one officer is training another officer, it made it almost impossible to communicate with masks on in a unit together,” Rogers said. “It took quite a bit of an adjustment for us.”
Rogers said that there is not a specific COVID training, but that the novel coronavirus has altered the way the department has done its training.
“Let’s say we’re going to train defensive tactics,” Rogers said. “How in the world are we going to teach defensive tactics with COVID? How are you going to do ground fighting? How are you going to do handcuffing? We’ve basically made our groups smaller, and we test for the virus. So instead of 20 guys out there, we may only have five.”
However, RPD has pressed on and adapted to the new normal. The department bought spray machines to disinfect an entire unit quickly and has worked with other agencies in the parish to protect the public and make things as normal as possible.
Rogers said they’ve worked hard with the Lincoln Parish Sheriff’s Office to make sure football has happened in the parish. He said that the department has to treat Ruston High School games as away games because they are traveling outside their jurisdiction. RHS has been playing its home games at Eddie G. Robinson Memorial Stadium on the campus of Grambling State University.
But, despite COVID restrictions, RPD has still had to do its job of protecting the public.
“We’re going to continue to try to do our job,” Rogers said. “We’re looking and watching what the trends are to see how we might need to respond in different situations.
“We’re constantly training. Some of our officers are welltrained and know how to respond to different situations. We train more than most agencies in this area, but I think it has paid off.”
Rogers knows there is a lot of uncertainty, and the department faces an uphill battle but is ready for the task.
“I wish I had a crystal ball to tell you what direction we need to head,” Rogers said. “We don’t know if there’s going to be a resurgence or not. It’s going to be a slow process. Obviously we need a vaccine today and get this over with.
“We’re all tired of dealing with this. What is the new normal? Can we cure this thing? Will it go away? We hope so. But this community has worked together during all of this and will continue to work together.”
