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Police Group Urged to Focus on Helping Needy not Parking Tickets

A New York Police Department car drives through an empty Times Square in New York on March 28.

A New York Police Department car drives through an empty Times Square in New York on March 28.

Photographer: Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images
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Police departments across the U.S. should cut down on arrests and instead of writing parking tickets officers ought to be helping the needy during the pandemic, a group that includes conservative nonprofits told a major U.S. police association.

Limiting unnecessary contact between police and the public can mitigate the spread of the coronavirus among officers and protect their families, groups including the Heritage Foundation and the free-market think tank R Street Institute said in a letter to the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the National Conference of Mayors.