The shutdown of so-called “nonlife sustaining businesses” and a statewide stay-at-home order during the coronavirus pandemic has had an impact in cases filed by police departments in Butler County.

Not surprisingly, the number of traffic citations has fallen drastically. The reason is simple.

“No one's on the road,” said Butler Police Chief Bob O'Neill.

“Everyday it's like working Christmas morning,” said Cranberry police Sgt. Chuck Mascellino. “That's how light the traffic is.”

Calls for shoplifting, too, have fallen.

“Some stores have closed down, some have reduced their hours,” said Butler Township Police Chief John Hays. “There are less people out. They're staying home.”

But while the police call volume has decreased in the wake of COVID-19 restrictions, the numbers of criminal cases filed in the county remained relatively steady last month compared to March 2019.

“As far as investigating crimes, it's business as usual,” said state police Cpl. Tim Morando of Troop D Butler's crime unit.

The impact of COVID-19 took hold in Pennsylvania and the nation last month. On March 13, Gov. Tom Wolf announced that all state schools would be closed for at least two weeks. That order later was extended to April 6.

Wolf's statewide shutdown of all “nonlife sustaining businesses” went into effect March 21.

On March 28, he issued a stay-at-home order for Butler and several other counties, before he extended that order across the state Thursday.

The Butler Eagle checked the county's seven district magisterial offices for the number of criminal, nontraffic and traffic cases and found:

n 246 criminal cases were filed last month and 225 for March 2019

n 152 non-traffic summary offenses, such as disorderly conduct, underage drinking, harassment, criminal mischief, and first offense shoplifting, were filed last month and 208 for March 2019

n 978 traffic cases were filed last month and 1,685 for March 2019.

In Butler Township, Hays said his department's call volume dropped from 485 in March 2019 to 414 last month.

Shoplifting down

One reason for the drop-off is fewer calls for shoplifting. Those calls come from the stores, with Walmart at the Butler Commons accounting for most of those in the township.

On March 15, all Walmarts nationwide no longer were open 24 hours, due to COVID-19. Instead, the stores hours were reduced from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. The hours were later changed from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

Those shorter hours combined with the stay-at-home order has limited the opportunities for retail thefts, Hays noted.

Mascellino has seen the same cause and effect in Cranberry Township.

“We've had one retail theft from Walmart in the past two weeks,” he said Thursday, “when we normally average one and a half retail thefts a day. “

At his departmemt, the volume of calls fell from 1,731 in March 2019 to 1,012 last month.

Mascellino attributed that drop, in part, to officers no longer going on nonemergency ambulance calls or responding to vehicle lockouts except those involving children, and a less aggressive approach to serving lower-level warrants.

Calls for suspicious circumstances have also fallen. “It's because of the stay-at-home order, absolutely,” he said.

That same order, Hays said, is likely responsible for fewer calls for burglaries and vehicle break-ins.

“We've seen a drop in overall calls,” O'Neill said, “but we've had just as many for the serious crimes. That really hasn't changed.”

While all police departments, local and state, are limiting the contact with the public as much as possible, practicing social distancing and handling certain calls over the phone, the core duties of troopers remains the same.

“We're still handling crashes, robberies, burglaries, crimes in progress,” said Trooper Brent Miller, state police communications director.

“We're not limiting our proactive enforcement,” O'Neill emphasized.

Police departments have also not seen a feared increase in domestic violence cases. But concern for that type of crime rising in the days and weeks to come continues, officials said, as people are cooped up for long periods of time.

“As this goes on,” Mascellino said, “I have a gut feeling that we could get more reports of verbal domestics as a result of a cabin fever type of thing.”

Far and away the biggest change for police in the COVID-19 age is the fewer traffic calls.

“We're just not seeing the normal flow of traffic,” Miller said. “I think people are really wanting to help and they're only going out when they have to. People want to do the right thing.”

Due to reduced traffic, police officials unanimously agree, departments have had a reduced amount of traffic offenses and much fewer crashes to investigate.

“Our traffic has probably fallen 90 percent from what it was before this,” Mascellino said.

He and Hays said their departments have also decided to temporarily curtail aggressive driving details in order to limit the contact officers have with people, and vice-versa.

“But,” Hays noted, “we're still enforcing the law and we're still protecting the public.”