California is enacting a nighttime curfew Saturday night, as spiking coronavirus cases threaten to swamp health care systems.
The new statewide restrictions mean that people should stay home from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., except for essential errands.
The curfew runs through Dec. 21 and covers 41 counties that contain most of the state's population.
Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies in Sonoma County said they have no plans to crack down on people violating the curfew.
Both Santa Rosa’s Police Department and the county’s Sheriff's Department planned to promote education over enforcement.
SRPD Public Information Officer Christopher Mahurin said officers in the county will not be pulling people over during the curfew.
“If a business still has patrons in it at 10:05, we’re not going to be sending officers to go shut down the business,” Mahurin said. “We’re going to report those things to co-enforcement; co-enforcement can handle them the next day. But we’re also not going to be stopping cars in the middle of the night asking them where they’re going, making sure they’re doing something that’s essential.”
Governor Newsom’s curfew order bans all gatherings with members of more than one household, whether indoors or outdoors, between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.
Mahurin said if agencies receive reports of large parties, they will be going to the site to check out the situation.
“For those kinds of parties, we do because usually they’re disturbing the neighbors anyway,” Mahurin said.
Sonoma County Sheriff’s spokesperson Misti Harris said sheriff’s deputies will not be actively enforcing the curfew either.
“We really focus on education over enforcement,” Harris said. “We want to help people understand how to stay safe, how to keep their friends and their neighbors safe.”
Bay Area counties where the curfew will be in effect include Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, Napa, Sonoma and Solano.