Did Manistee Police Endanger the Public with Late, Incomplete Information?

[XLFD]

Late Friday night on April 3, 2020, Manistee Police Department (MPD) Chief Tim Kozal alerted the press that two MPD officers tested positive for COVID-19.  Four additional officers were quarantined, according to Kozal, who noted:  "At this time, we have reached out to all potential exposure risks."

Kozal never mentioned the officer's names, and when I asked for them via the MPD's Facebook page, multiple well-meaning people were under the impression that HIPAA (nobody used the correct acronym) protected their identities because their infection was part of protected medical records.  Few were aware that during an infectious disease outbreak, HIPAA rules are relaxed in order to ensure that appropriate uses and disclosures of the information still may be made when necessary to treat a patient, to protect the nation’s public health, and for other critical purposes.

The site administrator claimed the privacy privilege while I argued that the public's right to know names was more important, since a full contact history for weeks would be nearly impossible for a police officer responding to miscellaneous calls and encounters without PPE and issuing potentially virus-laced paperwork to others.   Doing a contract trace and only having four fellow officers under quarantine made me presume they had not done a very good job of contract tracing.

So because they would not make this data public, I did the next best thing:  I used an E-mailed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to get the payroll and duty sheets from March and the proposed duty sheets for April.  The information here would likely give me the officers' names and the amount of time they worked during the prior two weeks; it would also allow me to see whether Kozal sat on the information, waiting until Friday night, after the regular news cycle, to release the news.  If you recall, he did the same thing when he announced that MPD Officer Doug Vansickle would not be held to account in his shooting of Lee Milks.  

                                                Manistee City Manager Thad Taylor and Unidentified Relative

Of course, our governor couldn't leave the FOIA alone with her executive orders, passing two during this time to effectively allow local and state governments ignore the hallmark transparency law until June if they so desire.  I had thought that Manistee City Manager Thad Taylor would go that route too, sending me an acknowledgment of extension to the end of April.  Fortunately for us, he replied on Monday, about a week earlier than he needed to, granting me the records and charging me $6.91 for the effort.  

Thad is too dense to figure out that he cannot charge me ten cents per page for making electronic copies, this is not allowed by the FOIA, even his own written policy does not allow for it.  Neither does it allow him to charge for effectively 15-30 minutes of a secretary's time to get payroll records, when his own policy states:  

No explanation of the unreasonably high costs involved for looking up current payroll records was noted in the response.  One continually has to be amazed at the incompetence of this trained monkey and his staff and of how it can take up to 30 minutes for a clerk to copy records already stored electronically, when it takes a normal person less than 30 seconds.  Apologies to all trained monkeys who can do better, and are offended to be compared to Thad.

Between the time that I asked for the records and received them (a period of 15 days), it was revealed on April 8th that a third officer tested positive.  I had also gathered enough intelligence before I received the FOIA response to be fairly positive of the identities of the officers who had been positive. 

It should again be noted, during a viral outbreak, the safety and health of the public is considered more important than the privacy concerns of naming public officials who likely contacted dozens of people in the course of their public employment duties.  It is almost certain that every officer would have received compassion and acclaim from the people they served for likely contracting the bug during the course of their job, just as this Battle Creek officer did.

The records show that the three officers that tested positive for the coronavirus was Detective Sergeant Josh Glass, whose first day off was March 31st:

Road Sergeant Steven Schmeling whose first day off was March 30th:

And David Shands who also started being absent on March 30th:

This actually confirmed independent research I had conducted with help from some Manistee operatives.  The natural presumption is to believe that Shands and Schmeling were the first two cops stricken, as their last day worked was on March 26th (whereas Glass worked until March 30th).  Both officers worked the swing shift with Officer Goodspeed, who appears to be one of the quarantined officers.   

Chief Kozal therefore waited eight days to inform the public that two officers were taking time off due to being sick with COVID-19.  Same day results testing have been the norm since the latter part of March, so why the delay in reporting?  Sergeant Glass' positive results weren't noted until after nine days of missing work.  The two beat cops worked 84 hours in the two weeks prior to missing work, the period for when contract tracing is usually recommended.   

Yet, as a result of the MPD's own contact-tracing, they only placed four other officers on quarantine and nobody else, according to Chief Kozal-- even so, the records seem to indicate that only three officers were under quarantine (Goodspeed, Hallead, and Frankowiac). It seems unlikely that due to the nature of their business that Shands and Schmeling wouldn't have issued citations, interposed themselves in a domestic dispute, made an arrest, or otherwise closely interrogate somebody in that time.  

If the names of the officers had been made public, any citizen who interacted with the MPD over the prior two weeks could either monitor their health if they had unsafe contact with either of the three officials, or rest easier if they knew their police contact was not carrying COVID-19.

These public safety officers instead chose to remain anonymous with their chief's blessing, while letting the public wonder whether the cop who helped them file a report gave them something in return.  For whatever reason, Chief Kozal waited over a week to tell the media of the first two officers affected, then waited even longer for the third.  Who bears the blame if one of the people these officers contacted contracts the virus, never got contacted by the MPD, and dies?  

A fair court or a fair jury may lay that blame on the public safety officers acting against their directives and delaying notifications until late Friday night a week later.

[Willy]

Good job X. I still say that Ludington is getting the short end of the stick when Kozel brings his brand of policing to Ludington. A lot of shady dealings under his watch. The old saying "who do you trust" doesn't seem to include Kozel. If he continues his methods of dealing with conflicts when he arrives in Ludington I do believe he will regret that X is a citizen of the town he landed in.

[Freedom Seeker]

Maybe he is reconsidering in his "delay" by corona virus?

[XLFD]

If what you are inferring is that Chief Kozal was the fourth quarantined officer, I think that would be a great guess, since each of the officers sidelined worked during the day, with Schmeling and Glass being sergeants that likely spent a lot of time around him.  Maybe he will deign to answer that question once he establishes himself here.

[Freedom Seeker]

According to Worldometer there are 11 cases of Corona virus in Manistee county. Four in Mason county.