'Nobody wants to be the bad guy': Local authorities struggle to present a united front on new COVID-19 enforcement rules

The McHenry County Department of Health has stressed the need for support from law enforcement in implementing Gov. JB Pritzker's new COVID-19 business enforcement guidelines, but local police are wary of straying from an educational approach.

Public Health Administrator Melissa Adamson told the County Board's Committee of the Whole at its last meeting that enforcing the use of face masks and capacity limits at businesses needs to be a "shared responsibility" between health authorities, the sheriff's office and local police.

"There's going to be limitations in terms of what we can do as a single entity," Adamson said. "It really is going to require, in my opinion, a community approach to ensure this happens."

The new three-step enforcement framework is a helpful tool for the Huntley Police Department to have in its "back pocket," but there is some concern about backlash from the community if the department comes down too hard on businesses, Deputy Chief Michael Klunk said Friday.

“I think everybody's concerned about taking away personal rights and things of that nature and nobody wants to be the bad guy but, on the other hand, nobody wants to be in a position where they didn’t do anything and now we're back in the situation where we were at the beginning of the year,” Klunk said. “So there's a very sensitive line that we want to ride on that.”

The McHenry County Sheriff's Office will continue to opt for an educational approach, relying on verbal requests for compliance when dealing with COVID-19-related complaints against businesses, said sheriff's deputy Sandra Rogers, the department's spokeswoman.

"We continue to maintain that we have no plans to enforce the governor’s orders as a criminal offense," Rogers wrote in an emailed statement shortly after the new enforcement guidelines were approved Aug. 11 by an Illinois General Assembly committee.

The new enforcement rule outlines three tiers of consequences for businesses that fail to comply with COVID-19 safety regulations beginning with a written warning informing the business of changes they will need to make.

After the written warning, enforcement agencies can order some or all of a business’ patrons to leave if they have exceeded their capacity limit. Finally, if noncompliance continues, a business can receive a Class A misdemeanor resulting in a fine ranging from $75 to $2,500.

The guidelines apply only to businesses, schools and day care centers and cannot be used to penalize individuals, according to the rule.

In McHenry County, the health department's environmental division is responsible for complaints regarding food-related businesses, such as restaurants, bars and grocery stores, department spokeswoman Lindsey Salvatelli said in an Aug. 11 interview. Law enforcement agencies are responsible for overseeing complaints against all other businesses and entities within their jurisdiction.

The McHenry Police Department will not change any of its protocols around the enforcement of COVID-19 safety regulations on businesses in response to the new rule, Police Chief John Birk wrote in a statement.

In an email sent to staff on Aug. 12, Birk wrote that the new rule certifies the health department to take all three enforcement steps themselves, meaning McHenry Police officers do not have to, but, instead, should accompany health officials when needed in a "standby fashion only."

McHenry police will focus solely on education and will give a verbal warning to gain compliance, repeating this step if necessary. If noncompliance continues, they will forward information on the violation over to the health department for "follow-up and possible further action," Birk wrote in his statement on Wednesday, Aug. 19.

The Crystal Lake Police Department will take a similar approach, Deputy Chief Thomas Kotlowski said, but for Crystal Lake, noncompliance could result in a citation, if needed.

"Should the need arise for more severe enforcement actions, the Crystal Lake Police Department will work with the McHenry County Department of Public Health for the issuance of a citation," Kotlowski wrote in a statement last Tuesday, Aug. 18.

The Harvard Police Department plans to enforce the new guidelines in their entirety, Chief of Police Mark Krause wrote in a statement Monday. Krause added that the department is counting on businesses to remain diligent in monitoring their own compliance.

"Enforcement is always a delicate balance of interests," he wrote in response to a question about potential challenges or backlash that could come with implementing the new framework.

The health department also relies on education and outreach as its first method of getting businesses to comply but said enforcement may be necessary in some cases, Salvatelli said.

Crystal Lake police have not issued any warnings regarding COVID-19 safety violations among businesses since the approval of the new enforcement rule, according to documents obtained by the Northwest Herald.

Huntley police have not gotten any complaints since the rule was approved and have not had many problems with businesses in general, Klunk said. They, too, have focused primarily on education as they feel the community is still adjusting to safety regulations, he said.

“If it comes down to it and it's the health and safety of our community because someone is violating something and we're having outbreaks, by all means we're going to step in and do whatever we can with the tools that are available to us,” Klunk said.

McHenry police have also not received any complaints against businesses regarding face masks, social distancing or capacity limits to date, Birk said.

The health department's environmental division, on the other hand, has been inundated with complaints, Adamson said during the Committee of the Whole meeting.

"We get a lot of complaints, and we do our best to respond to all of them but this [new rule] clearly outlines that this is a shared responsibility and so we're hoping that all the municipalities, the sheriff and even other departments within the county could be empowered to enforce this," she said.

The health department's environmental health division is also still responsible for routine business inspections and complaints unrelated to COVID-19, further limiting their staff's capacity to handle all of the county's COVID-19 complaints on top of their normal duties, Adamson said.

"The other thing is we're not really equipped to go out late at night to disperse crowds, so we really see that more as a law enforcement responsibility," she said.

McHenry police will continue to support the health department when their assistance is needed, Birk wrote in his statement, a sentiment echoed by Kotlowski and Klunk.