Social distancing has always been a foreign concept to Penn Township police Sgt. Jack Ripper.

Always ready and willing to help, he's a people person. He's friendly. Approachable. Sociable.

The long-time officer is a fixture in the township. To know him is to like him.

Policing in the age of the coronavirus pandemic has cramped Ripper's style.

“Yeah, I'm a personable guy,” he acknowledged. “It's tough not being able to socialize with people like I'm used to.”

Keeping one's distance to six feet, when possible, might as well be six miles for Ripper.

“That's one of the biggest changes, trying to minimize as much close personal contact as you can,” he said, “unless you have to.”

It's something that always on his mind, he admitted. He recalled responding to a call for a broken down motorist, and being aware not to get up close and personal.

There are other changes, too, that are still taking time to get used to, like new “equipment” required of the job.

“We got to carry extra sanitary wipes now, hand cleaner, masks and goggles, stuff like that,” he said. He dons his mask, for example, whenever he goes into a business or home.

When outside, he “plays it by ear,” whether to “mask up” or not.

“Government orders,” he noted. “You should follow that.”

Part of his job, he said, is to “make my presence known” around the community including at businesses. That aspect of his work has become a bit complicated.

“It's different,” he said. “You used to be able to stop and walk into a business and talk to the people. But we can't now because they're closed or you're limited in what you can do.”

For the past several weeks, he noted, the call volume has been noticeably down, a result of the Gov. Tom Wolf's statewide stay-at-home order issued April 1.

Wolf on May 8 lifted that order for Butler and a number of other counties, and gave permission to certain stores and businesses to reopen.

On March 19, as part of his administration's COVID-19 mitigation efforts, he ordered any “business in the Commonwealth that is not a life sustaining business” to close.

In the first week or so of that order, Ripper said, police received complaints about some businesses — including golf courses — not being in compliance.

Police paid those businesses a visit.

“We went up and talked to them and said, 'Hey, we got to follow government rules and right now you're not allowed to be open,” Ripper recalled. “We asked them to close and they did.”

Traffic calls were drastically reduced immediately after the COVID-19 outbreak, not surprisingly, as fewer people have been out driving. But that doesn't mean there hasn't been enforcement.

“I still pull people over,” Ripper said. “I stopped two kids for going damned close to 100 mph. You got to pull them over. They got tickets. You still got a job to do.”

But since the county moved from the red to yellow phase in Wolf's reopening plan, Ripper said he's seen an increase in traffic on township roads.

He said he has not seen an increase in domestic calls, something he thought he might after the business closure and stay-at-home orders.

Support of the public has risen since the COVID-19 impact.

“We've had several people donating hand-sanitizing gel and making sure that we get the Clorox wipes and stuff like that,” he said. “It's awesome.”

Getting back to social distancing, Ripper believes it's not going away anytime soon, like it or not.

“It's weird,” he said. “It's definitely a new thing and I think it's going to be a standard for a while. Like no shaking hands. It's one of the things you got to adapt to and go with the flow.”

COVID-19 has altered the challenging job of the police officer. Masks, gloves, disinfecting wipes and bottles of hand sanitizers have become tools of the trade.For some it's a hassle. But for Butler Patrolman Marc Howard, it's just part of the job now.“You got to adapt,” he said.And in keeping with his good-natured character, Howard has even found a way to smile through the unexpected change to policing.When masks became a statewide mandate, “it took a while to get used to,” Howard admitted. But he and some of his fellow officers made the best of it.Patrolman Jacob May's mother-in-law put her talents to work and made several masks for the officers, including Howard.It wasn't long before they headed out together to answer a burglar alarm at a house on Fourth Street. They got there and “masked up,” a new term in the police vernacular.“They were actually dark blue, like our uniforms,” Howard said of the masks. “It was kind of cool 'cause we all matched.”Since that shift a while ago, wearing the face covering has become just part of the routine. And like their other standard issue equipment, the officers' masks are always within reach when called upon to use.“Some of the guys throw them around their vests,” Howard said. “I put it around my Taser handle so every time I look down, it's there. It reminds me to put my mask on.”In dealing with the pandemic, he practices a go-with-the-flow, roll-with-the-punches mentality.“When this all came about,” Howard recalled, “we took everything as seriously as we could. We actually all came together and decided to make sure that station is thoroughly wiped down after shift to ensure everything is clean.”That goes for the patrol cars, too.Dealing with the public — and vice versa, for that matter — has also been affected by the pandemic. Personal protection equipment and social distancing directives have created new dimensions to policing.Prior to COVID-19, it was fairly routine for officers to go into homes or businesses to speak to individuals as part of a call or investigation, Howard said. It's not as routine now.“People have always been so inviting, 'Come on in, I'll talk to you,'” he said. “They're kind of not use to us telling them, 'No, we really have to talk (outside).'”It's all about social distancing, Howard said.“I think we do pretty good at it,” he said, referring to the officers in his department. “It's not just for our safety, but for the public, too.”But adhering to the social distancing protocol can be difficult.Howard cited a recent DUI stop he made on Brady Street. Eventually, he had to administer field sobriety tests.“I kept as much distance as I could,” he said. “But I kept in mind that I had to do my job.”Two of the tests — the walk-and-turn and the one-leg stand — posed no problem. But the horizontal gaze nystagmus test was another matter.The HGN test requires the officer to observe the involuntary “jerkiness” of the eyeball in determing if a driver may be impaired.“I felt I was at a safe enough distance,” Howard said, “but we were still close face to face. It was somewhat difficult. Obviously, he didn't have a mask on.”Having had his mask on throughout, Howard put on protective gloves when it was time to arrest the suspect.Adjusting to the new reality of COVID-19 hasn't been seamless, the officer admitted, but it hasn't been too difficult either — all things considered.“We're taking it one day at a time,” Howard said. “We help each other out and that makes it really easy. We got a great chief. Right off the bat he was 100 percent for the guys as far as telling us how to take precautions, how to handle ourselves in the street.“It was a pretty easy process other than just weird with the mask and putting gloves on.”