During the coronavirus pandemic, you could end up seeing Monroe County Sheriff’s deputies in the community even more.

On Saturday, Monroe County Sheriff Todd Baxter talked about how his team is managing the continually changing COVID-19 atmosphere. 

“One of the things we've done is, we moved to what I call an omni presence patrol. So our patrol officers are, right now, being asked to go spend some time in the community, spend some time in the shopping districts, the malls, the food distribution points, and just give people that sense of security, if you will, from the standpoint that we're probably the most visible form of government. And then, when there's a lot of anxiety going into our community, it's nice to have that calming presence of a patrol officer patrolling through, taking their time and let them know that we're here to serve and here to help,” said Sheriff Baxter.

Sheriff Baxter says deputies are following safety guidelines to keep themselves and the community safe. This, as the governor issues an executive order directing all non-essential businesses across the state to close at 8:00 Sunday evening.

The sheriff says he doesn’t believe it’s going to come to the point where deputies will have to use law enforcement to enforce these guidelines, because he says, most people and businesses are doing exactly what’s asked of them.

“If we go to a business that may be essential, non-essential, we're probably not going to start doing law enforcement actions. We're going to start doing education actions. We're going to start referring to the state's website and identifying what essential businesses are clearly listed. And if you're not, or you're confused, there's a way to do an application online to make yourself an essential business. So it would be education, and then we could do the enforcement on the other side,” said Baxter.

The sheriff believes the community can handle this unprecedented situation saying, "If you look around, we're a community that's really filled with resiliency. We get knocked down quite a bit up in Western New York, whether it's weather or some other thing and you see people adapt and overcome."

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