Hays County Sheriff Answers Questions Regarding Shelter-At-Home Curfew Enforcement

Staff Reports

The Hays County Sheriff’s Office has released a response to questions from the public regarding how the Shelter-At-Home order will impact department operations. 

Sheriff Gary Cutler response:  

We have received some questions about the Curfew that is included in the latest County Judge’s Order.

The Judge’s Curfew runs from 11 PM to 4 AM for the next 2 weeks. People have wondered how the Sheriff’s Office might use the Curfew to interact with the public.

I am writing to inform the public that the Hays County Sheriff’s Office will not be using the Curfew as a basis for traffic stops.

When Sheriff’s Office deputies see a vehicle on the roads of Hays County, regardless of the time of day, they will assume it is because someone is going to work at an Essential Business, or doing something else permitted by the Judge’s Order.

If there is independent Reasonable Suspicion or Probable Cause to stop a driver or pedestrian, at any hour of the day, then my deputies will continue to do their jobs, as they always do.

I encourage you to contact the Sheriff’s Office to request assistance, regardless of the time of day or night without fear of reprisal.  

Your right to privacy is important to me. I do not feel COVID-19, as it has currently affected Hays County, should be a basis for a Curfew.  The virus doesn’t care what time of day it is and is just as concerning at 2 p.m. as it is at 2 a.m. A “Stay at Home, Work Safe” Order, in my view, is an around-the-clock effort by this community to curb the impact of COVID-19. 

The challenges we face are real, the virus and the steps needed to contain it depends on all of us.  I ask the citizens for voluntary compliance to this order.  If you don’t have to leave your home, please stay home. 

My office and I are here to stand with you.   Working together, Hays County will remain strong.  

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6 Comments

  1. I do home health care in kyle. Just 4 hours a day for 3 days. Will I still be able to work. From 10:00 am to 2:00 pm?

    1. Hello Cathy,

      Yes, under the Shelter-At-Home order, you will still be able to work. Those who are providing care to other individuals are among the exempted as they are providing essential services. You can read the full order here, which will give you the full details.

  2. As a night owl from birth I believe my exercising and shopping at midnight helps us keep 6 ft away easier. The problem is finding 24 hr stores in this area. Maybe they will start soon. My daughter is a speech therapist in Washington state., So far she and everyone there are healthy.

  3. The Sheriff conveniently forgets that most people work in the daytime and socialize at night. Any.measure that cuts down on socializing right now will help fight the coronavirus. People out driving between 11 pm and 1 am are not all going to work. To pretend this is just absurd.
    The Sheriff can play politics, or he can help save lives by discouraging and perhaps making examples of those not out in public for essential purposes
    That would be in line with informed medical opinions all over the world.
    But the Sheriff, whose biography shows no medical trainingwhatsoever, thinks he knows better.,

  4. My company wants me to come in and do inventory with a couple of associates. We are not an essential business. Are we allowed to do so?

  5. If the business is a “non-essential” business which remains closed, no = maintenance of non-essential.
    .
    If the business is a “essential” business either closed or open, yes = maintenance of essential.
    .
    Best answer:If you stop raising flags and asking questions which are best kept to yourself answered by your own common sense = by all means.

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