Ever since the COVID-19 outbreak happened in Iowa, more restrictions from the governor’s emergency proclamation have come about, as well as the virus having an impact on crime overall.

Jefferson Police Chief Mark Clouse has seen a drop to overall crime in Jefferson, due to COVID-19.

“Things are slowed down a little bit. (It) Makes sense that people are sheltering-in-place and you have a lot less traffic moving. Those types of traffic violations, traffic stops, those numbers are obviously down, as well as just crime in general.”

As for the governor’s public health emergency proclamation of restricting social gatherings to no more than ten people, keeping six feet apart and making sure people don’t go on playground equipment or the skating parks, Clouse says they are continuing to enforce those. However, Clouse notes they aren’t necessarily writing citations if someone is found to be in violation of the proclamation.

“I think most departments, including mine, are going to try to work by reasoning with people and educating people at first. I think a last resort would be a citation or an arrest.”

Clouse adds, there have been a couple of calls about possible violations to the proclamation, which he says his department dealt with and were very minor in nature.