Orange County Sheriff Says Deputies Won't Enforce Stay-At-Home Order

SANTA ANA (CBSLA) — The Orange County Sheriff's Department announced Thursday it would not be enforcing Gov. Gavin Newsom's limited stay-at-home order.

In a statement, Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said, "Earlier today, the Orange County Sheriff's Department became aware of a limited Stay at Home Order that Governor Newsom's office ordered to go into effect on Saturday, November 21 at 10 p.m. Throughout the pandemic, the Orange County Sheriff's Department has taken an education-first approach with regard to the public health orders."

Barnes continued, "We are currently assessing the action by the Governor. At this time, due to the need to have deputies available from emergency calls for service, deputies will not be responding to requests for face-coverings or social-gatherings enforcement."

It's a sentiment that some in Orange County shared Thursday night after the statewide order was issued.

"There's not reason for a 10 p.m. curfew, it's stupid," Jerome Severin, a diner in Newport Beach, said. "I mean, there's less people doing stuff at night than in the day anyway."

The Sheriff's announcement came shortly after Newsom announced a "limited stay-at-home order"would go into effect Saturday that will require gatherings, movement and non-essential work to stop between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. in California counties that are in the purple tier.

Orange County is one of the state's 41 counties in the purple tier along with Los Angeles, Ventura, Riverside, and San Diego County.

"This whole COVID thing has just got me confused," James Brown, a Huntington Beach resident, said. "And with all these orders, the stay at home now and closing the restaurants back up and doing what they're doing, I just don't understand it."

But others in the popular tourist destination said they understood the importance of the curfew.

"We gotta do what we gotta do to help this pandemic, get it down to zero or whatever," Tony Gonzalez, who lives in L.A. County, said.

But it's businesses, especially restaurants, that said they were worried about their ability to make it through another round of restrictions.

"All of the businesses that are here, we cannot make it this long," Oronzo Rosaeo, manager at Il Farro in Newport Beach, said. "This holidays are gone. We lost the holiday on the Fourth of July, and we're going to lose Thanksgiving and Christmas. They're gone."

In:
• KCAL 9
• COVID-19
• Orange County