San Antonio – Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff is asking for the sheriff’s office to get tough with citations for violations of the public health ordinance, as the positivity numbers continue to remain high.
“We still hear too many violations and with those violations, we’ll never be able to get this under control,” Wolff said.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar says his approach was to educate business owners and the public about the requirements.
“It’s not about generating ticket revenue or making things harder on people in light of the tough economy. But it is a matter of saving lives,” Salazar said.
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Since mid-March, his office reports that there have been more than 400 ordinance-related calls. Deputies found 130 of those were in fact violations. About 60 of them included businesses and nearly 70 were large gatherings.
But Salazar says his deputies have also visited more than 2,200 businesses in a proactive approach to check for compliance. Now, he’s sending them back to those businesses.
“Of the 2,200 that you already visited, especially those that were not in compliance before, if they’re not in compliance after that first warning, let’s go ahead and issue them a citation,” he said.
He explains that the majority of the violations dealt with businesses not having the proper signage at the front door. He says tickets for failure to wear a mask have not yet been enforced.
Wolff says it’s time to get tough.
“If you see a person not wearing a mask when they should, if you hear a business not complying with this, please call the police or sheriff. We have to do our due diligence to make sure people are getting fined,” he said.
The City of San Antonio’s website indicates that since mid-March, there have been more than 8,800 ordinance related calls, some 2,800 warnings have been given and 89 citations have been written to date.
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