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To limit community spread of the potentially deadly COVID-19 virus, Attorney General Mike Hunter and Gov. Kevin Stitt released a set of best practices Monday for Oklahoma law enforcement agencies.

At its heart, the set of guidelines asks police to weigh the need to make an arrest against the public health risk of putting someone in jail.

We think that is the question police should ask of every arrest at any time, not just during a pandemic. Oklahoma is a mass incarceration state. Through two initiative petitions and some good legislation, the state has made incremental improvements to reduce the prison population, but we still have a long way to go.

The solution to the problem of too many people in the state’s jails and prisons is to put fewer people there in the first place. The key to doing that is to make sure the people we arrest, charge, prosecute and convict are true threats to society, not just people who make us angry.

Through policy and training, some police departments and sheriff’s offices have bought into those concepts, but not enough.