'Emotional hangover' predicted when busy complaint line's days are over

After its first month, New Brunswick's COVID-19 "snitch line" has answered more than 8,000 "non-health-related" calls, which have resulted in a total of 29 tickets being issued for violating the province's state of emergency order.

It's also served a valuable purpose in putting more eyes in the community to ensure people are following the guidelines laid out by the province to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Premier Blaine Higgs says.

The calls were mostly about "social distancing practices or, let's say, mass gatherings or gatherings just of numbers outside of family," he said at a regular briefing on COVID-19.

But of thousands of calls, most do not describe or lead to the discovery of violations of the emergency order.

Smallnumber require enforcement

A government spokespersonsaid officials have received a wide variety of non-compliance complaints, including the following examples:

• People letting their children go to the playground.
• A business not having anyone at the door advising of self-distancing or limiting the number of customers in the store.
• A neighbour having company over.
• People hanging out at an apartment having a party.

In "the vast majority of cases, people are abiding by the emergency order," said Shawn Berry, a spokesperson for the Public Safety Department. "In a very small number of cases, enforcement has been required."

Psychology professor Steve Joordens says the harm caused by such tip lines outweighs the benefits.

"Usually the government is pushing pro-social initiatives all the time and fighting anti-social ones," saidJoordens, of the University of Toronto Scarborough.

"But a snitch line is kind of anti-social. It's anti-social for a justified reason, but it's turning people against one another."

And it may not be having the desired effect, said Joordens, who grew up in Lincoln, just south of Fredericton.

Turning people against each other

"It's something that you wouldn't expect a government to get in the business of obviously someone feels that there's a greater good that comes with this, but it's a dangerous initiative to be having especially in a small-town place like New Brunswick. Unless you're in Fredericton, Saint John or Moncton, everybody knows everybody."

He fears that people will hold grudges against the person who reported them or worse, falsely accuse someone of doing so.

"It's much more personal in a small town, and it can lead to grudges and things that would carry over," he said.

While the caller might believe they're doing the right thing in the interest of fighting COVID-19, Joordens said motivation usually doesn't matter to the person getting in trouble. He said it's human nature to want to blame "the snitch," and he worries that the lingering effects of these tip lines will create "an emotional hangover."

"That's not something that goes away very easily. That emotional hangover can last for a while."

• New COVID-19 information line allows people to report rule-breakers

Joordens said the whole idea of snitch linesis reminiscent of the Second World War. His parents lived in Nazi-occupied Holland,where sympathizers frequently reportedfellow countrymen to the Germans, so he understands the baggage that somepeople may carry.

"For a lot of people, it could bring back these nasty ideas."

Other lines were over-burdened

The province set up the line last month to ease the burden on 811 and 911. It was designed to take questions about COVID-19 and to let people report those who appeared to be violating the emergency declaration order.

"Depending on the nature of the call, a caller may be directed to resources like Business New Brunswick's Business Navigator or to WorkSafeNB," said Berry.

"Information about non-compliance complaints are referred to law enforcement for further review."

As of Monday, 29 tickets had been issued for violating the state of emergency order, he said.

• Codiac Regional RCMP 'inundated' by pandemic callers

At a briefing, Higgs was asked about one caller to the line who said nothing was done about her neighbour despite making three calls.

When asked to explain the followup process, Higgs said, "Well, there's certainly a followup, or why would we ever put it in place?"

He invited the woman to contact him directly by email and promised to follow up on her case.

"I appreciate the individual making a concerted effort in this case here ... but it's more than a spreadsheet."

While the information does help identify trends in the community, Higgs said complaints are addressed.

A snitch line is kind of anti-social ...for a justified reason, but it's turning people against one another.- Psychology professor Steve Joordens

Meanwhile, police forces around the province are also receiving tips about non-compliance and are following up on them.

While she wouldn't cite numbers, RCMP Cpl. Jullie Rogers-Marsh said the force has issued tickets "where appropriate" but is focusing on education.

She said "tickets are only one part of the enforcement effort" and don't reflect the overall effort of officers.

On Monday night, the commanding officer of the Codiac RCMPtold Moncton city council that the force has been 'inundated' with calls by people reporting others not obeying rules to physically distance or to self-isolate after entering the province.

Supt. Tom Critchlow said Codiac RCMPhave opened 800 files as a result of the calls. When contacted on Tuesday about the nature of the calls, Critchlow declined comment.

Saint John Police Force spokesperson Jim Hennessy said officers have received nearly 100 complaints about people not physical distancing and similar breaches of the emergency order.

He declined to say whether the force had issued any tickets, saying, "Education is going to be key and we want to be a part of that."