CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — By now we have seen dozens of restaurants who have adapted and continue to adapt to the changes and challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has presented. Many continue to offer the options of curbside, carry-out and delivery, while several have moved to safely reopen their dining rooms to a limited capacity.
By now, you've also likely driven by a restaurant that, even in the midst of the pandemic, appears to have a pretty packed parking lot (or at least appears to be over the statewide 50-percent capacity limit placed on restaurants currently).
It's moments and images like that that could lead to a potential visit from a Corpus Christi police officer to check in on things, specifically to see if the 50-percent capacity rule is being followed at the restaurant. It's typically around the lunch and evening times when police officers will be monitoring restaurant crowds and responding to complaints if it appears a certain restaurant is out of compliance.
CCPD Deputy Chief Billy Breedlove explained that the public health district had reached out to the police department regarding surveillance efforts and patrols of area businesses after receiving complaints that there were some that appeared to be out of compliance.
"We initially started with responding to those complaints and inspecting those restaurants, and we’ve now started taking a more proactive approach in trying to inspect as many restaurants as possible. There’s over 1,700 restaurants in our city so it really is going to take our community to make sure they’re following what Governor Abbott has laid out," Breedlove explained. "They [police officers] may go to a restaurant and see there’s only three parked cars in the parking lot, and they’re not going to get out of their car and go inside.”
According to CCPD, since last Thursday (August 6), 174 Corpus Christi restaurants were inspected; only 2 locations were found out of compliance and have been issued warnings.
Breedlove explained the process one can expect if law enforcement pays their restaurant a visit, which he said begins with some awareness and education:
“First thing we do is educate the management. We inform them of the laws and then we provide a warning to them to make sure it doesn’t happen again, and we leave it up to the management to correct the shortcomings," Breedlove said. "Police officers aren’t going to be going and clearing restaurants that are packed, that’s not the role of the officers. It’s on the management to make sure they’re following that, and any enforcement would be on the management or owners, not on the citizens at the locations.”
Breedlove reminded that if you are the owner or manager of a local restaurant, you must have the occupancy rate clearly posted in the front of the establishment.
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