Behaviour of population during the Corona pandemic:

The Zug police increased the number of patrols during the lockdown. But the idea behind this was not to hand out fines.

As the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" wrote in a report in mid-May,  police officers fined a woman for holding hands. A lawyer who was also asked about this was quoted as follows: "It’s disproportionate to prohibit the holding of hands." The Federal Office of Public Health complicated the matter by noting: "Because the need of the enforcement bodies for clear rules has to be taken into account, the social distance rules should, in principle, be observed by everyone."

The Zug police did not have to deal with such tricky legal issues during the lockdown from mid-March to mid-May. Frank Kleiner, spokesman for the Zug Law Enforcement Authorities, summarises the practice of the Zug Police Corps during this time: "Our checks were always carried out within the framework of proportionality. Our goal was not to hand out fines or to charge people, but to implement the federal orders for the protection of the population."

Police do not keep 'corona statistics'
Kleiner also knows that many citizens' reports were received in connection with the instructions issued by the Confederation and the canton during the lockdown. This was very often a case of violations of the social distance rules. When a patrol appeared on the spot, however, the persons who had violated the Coronavirus regulation had already left the area, or complied with the requirements.

Without going into details, Frank Kleiner explains that in the event of violations, standard fines were also issued. The police spokesman was unable to give a figure, however: "We do not keep a 'corona statistic' and therefore do not provide any information on the number of standard fines issued." In general, the population had "largely adhered to the rules", and "for a long time, the number of people in public spaces was significantly lower than on ‘normal’ days".

Zug police often admonished, but imposed standard fines less often

But the police spokesman is not only concerned about the good aspects: "Our colleagues also repeatedly came across groups that did not comply with the guidelines and acted in a inflexible manner." According to Kleiner, the somewhat more renegade contemporaries were "teenagers and young adults". In such cases, the Zug police entered into conversations with them, and made clear statements regarding the situation: "They drew the attention of the groups to the rules laid down by the Federal Council." During these talks, the officers drew the attention of the groups to their "social responsibility and solidarity with the rest of the population". The police also inspected businesses. As Kleiner points out, the affected people also showed understanding for the measures.

The Zug police also checked companies to see whether the federal measures had been implemented. The cheese shop Dubach in the Metalli shopping arcade installed Plexiglass panes.

The tactics of the Zug police seem to have worked. One requirement was to "be noticeable to the population." They did this by sending out more patrols. The police corps was not spared from the disease, however, and three cases of corona virus have been reported so far. According to the spokesman of the Zug Law Enforcement Authorities, all the sick people are " well again in the meantime, and have resumed their work".

Two businessmen were fined
In the course of the Corona pandemic, the Federal Council (Bundesrat) adopted a comprehensive ordinance, which also included criminal law standards. The legal basis for this can be found in the Epidemic Act of 2016. The Zug police say they do not keep any statistics on how many cases are underway related to the coronavirus.

The fact is that, among the 499 sentencing orders made available by the Public Prosecutor's Office in May, two are based on a fact which is not normally punished. In Baar, the manager of a bar hosted guests at the beginning of April. The bar owner had to pay a fine of CHF 900, in addition to legal costs of CHF 400.

Also in Baar, the police caught a hairdresser cutting a man's hair for CHF 15 on Holy Saturday (the day after Good Friday). The monetary fine (CHF 2,000) was only imposed conditionally, but the standard fine and the legal costs, amounting to CHF 900, had to be paid by the hairdresser.