Hartford Police Department is taking new steps to promote social distancing amid the coronavirus outbreak including expanding its "telepolicing" capabilities.
New "telepolicing" capabilities include what the city called a Teleserve unit.
The Teleserve unit is able to take criminal complaints over the phone and will now be handling a wider spectrum of calls in an effort to protect the public and officers from unnecessary in-person contact, the city said.
The city said calls for service including some non-emergency larceny complaints, identity theft complaints, some burglary complaints, and crashes without injuries will be taken over the phone.
Supervisors will determine which calls require an in-person response, the city added.
The Teleserve unit will not impact investigations for criminal complaints.
Police cruisers will also now use their public announcement systems to remind residents about the importance of social distancing.
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A pre-recorded public health message will be able to be played in both English and Spanish and will be broadcast if there are groups of people congregating without social distancing, according to city officials.
In Hartford, there have been at least 11 confirmed cases of coronavirus so far. In total, there are more than 400 cases across the state.
