After parading fire and police cars drove past Harrison Medical Center on Friday to show support for the hospital employees, a group of health care workers and police officers huddled close together for a photo — well within 6 feet of each other.

Though many in the photo were wearing masks, and some appeared to take pains to keep their distance, others did not.

“It was the typical, ‘We can do it, but you can’t,” said Dave Raymond, who saw the photo posted to the Bremerton Police Department’s Facebook page just before the department apparently had second thoughts and deleted it.

“These are the people who are going to be enforcing the rule that we can’t use the parks,” said Raymond, of Bremerton. He estimated it was live on the department's social media page for about two hours as commenters tore into the judgment shown by those in the photo.

Raymond — a former emergency medical technician, volunteer firefighter and an organizer of the Kitsap 9/11 Memorial in Bremerton — said he supports emergency workers, but it was galling to see those who would enforce Gov. Jay Inslee’s stay-at-home order against gatherings apparently violating it. The order also limits travel to essential trips and promotes precautions meant to slow the spread of coronavirus, including staying apart from those living in other households.

Health care workers can come face-to-face with the disease, putting them at risk of being infected themselves and infecting others. Law enforcement officers are also at particular risk — not just of contracting the disease, but spreading it through the community as they respond to calls for service. Agencies have taken precautions to limit close, unprotected contact with people but at times, because of the nature of the job, that is impossible.

COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, infected at least two people in the county courthouse in Port Orchard, a corrections officer in the jail and a Superior Court judge. A Bainbridge Island police officer died after showing symptoms similar to COVID-19, according to reports, but tests came back negative.

The procession was originally intended to show support for health care workers at the hospital's Bremerton and Silverdale locations. A video of the display made by the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office showed law enforcement officers wearing masks and gloves.

'People rightly called us out for this error'

However, in an email from Bremerton Mayor Greg Wheeler to Raymond, Wheeler wrote that after finishing the production, those “swept up” in the moment gathered together for the photo.

“Many people, including some Bremerton officers, were not practicing social distancing,” Wheeler wrote in the email, which Raymond provided to the Kitsap Sun. “This does not meet our social distancing protocols. When the photo was posted to social media, people rightly called us out for this error.”

Wheeler wrote that he, BPD Chief Jim Burchett and the department’s command staff were assessing the education and training already in place and what remains to be done.

Kitsap County sheriff's deputies were also in the photo.

Sheriff Gary Simpson was present and wrote in a letter to Raymond that nurses had requested the photo. Simpson wrote that up until then those in attendance had been following social distancing measures.

"An event which took less than two or three minutes has now tainted our relationship with the public," Simpson wrote. "I have reiterated our expectations to our personnel and do not foresee any reoccurrences of this nature."