New York - When nine police officers
showed up to make an arrest near Melrose Avenue in the Bronx
last Wednesday, none wore a mask or gloves to protect them from
coronavirus.
Similar scenes play out all over the city daily: officers
making arrests, walking their beats and responding to 911 calls
without protective gear, according to interviews with nearly two
dozen New York City officers and scenes witnessed by Reuters.
As of Sunday, 818 members of the nation’s biggest police
force had tested positive for coronavirus, including 730
uniformed officers and 88 civilian staffers, according to NYPD.
The department said about 5,000 of its 55,000 total employees
are on sick leave.
Major city departments nationwide, such as Houston and
Detroit, are being forced to sideline officers as infections
rise in the ranks, according to a Reuters survey of the nation’s
20 largest U.S. police agencies conducted between March 25 and
March 29. The police agencies have confirmed 1,012 cases of
COVID-19 among officers or civilian staff, according to the
survey and a Reuters review of the departments’ public
statements.
The pandemic has depleted police forces already strained by
staffing shortages. Many departments have told officers to limit
their interactions with the public and maintain social
distancing. Some agencies are re-assigning detectives and
administrative staff to help respond to emergencies as more
patrol officers get sick, which requires pulling the
investigators away from major cases.
“There’s a lot of triaging going on,” said Chuck Wexler,
executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a
think tank that advises police on policy issues. “Many
departments are having to re-order priorities and the calls they
respond to. Police are having to reshuffle how they use their
resources.”
NYPD may face the biggest challenge because of the severity
of the city’s outbreak: Of the 2,477 deaths reported nationwide
as of Monday, 678 came in New York City.
The officers interviewed by Reuters said shortages of gear
leave them vulnerable and that they fear spreading the virus to
their families and the public.
“We show up first, to everything, and we are completely
unprotected,” said one officer in the 33rd precinct.
All of the New York officers interviewed by Reuters spoke on
condition of anonymity. They say the department forbids them
from speaking to reporters.
Sergeant Jessica McRorie, an NYPD spokesperson, said that
the department was responding to an "unprecedented" crisis and
has issued detailed guidance to officers on how to protect
themselves. Since the outbreak began, she said, the NYPD has
distributed 204,000 pairs of gloves, 75,000 N-95 masks, 340,000
surgical masks and distributed 125,000 alcohol wipes and hand
sanitizer to employees.
NYPD did not answer questions from Reuters about whether
that amount of gear - much of it disposable - was sufficient to
protect its 36,000 officers and 19,000 civilian employees. The
department also did not comment on the accounts of officers who
said they had little or no protective gear, or whether it had
experienced difficulty in purchasing enough supplies.
Masks and other protective or sanitary supplies have often
been scarce since the pandemic sent worldwide demand surging,
prompting safety concerns from a wide range of workers who
interact daily with the public, from first responders to doctors
to delivery drivers.
One uniformed NYPD officer and two civilian employees have
died after contracting COVID-19. The officer - 23-year veteran
detective Cedric Dixon from the 32nd precinct in Harlem - died
on Saturday.
On March 13, the New York City police union filed a
complaint with state health and safety regulators over the
department's failure to provide protective equipment and
adequate cleaning and sanitizing supplies. The union emphasized
the threat to officers’ families.
“It’s important for our leaders to remember that we aren’t
the only ones at risk,” said Patrick J. Lynch, president of the
city’s police union, in a statement. “Our husbands and wives and
daughters and sons didn’t pick this job, but they share our
sacrifice."
Reuters was not able to determine whether any family members
of NYPD officers had been infected.
SIDELINED OFFICERS, DELAYED ARRESTS
Departments nationwide are struggling to protect their
officers - and to operate without those who are getting sick.
The Reuters survey asked police agencies how many of their
employees tested positive for coronavirus, how many were
quarantined, and how the outbreak has impacted their operations.
The Nassau County Police Department - just outside New York
City on Long Island - reported the second highest number of
cases with 68 employees testing positive. In Detroit, a fifth of
the city’s 2,200-member force has been quarantined after at
least 39 officers tested positive - including the police chief.
Two department staffers, a commanding officer and a 911
dispatcher, have died after contracting the virus.
The departments in San Antonio and Honolulu were the only
ones that reported no confirmed infections on their forces.
In New Orleans and Seattle - which are not among the top 20
departments but are hotspots of infection - another seven police
employees tested positive, the departments told Reuters.
The outbreak is forcing law enforcement agencies nationwide
to implement sweeping changes to their policing strategies.
The Philadelphia Police Department, the nation’s
fourth-largest law enforcement agency with 6,540 officers, has
begun delaying arrests for certain non-violent offenders. The
change means individuals will be temporarily detained only to
confirm identity and complete required paperwork instead of
being processed at a detective division. The person will then be
arrested at a later date.
The 2,440-officer Nassau County department had quarantined
163 officers as of Saturday. Its dispatchers are screening all
911 calls to check if anyone needing help is exhibiting symptoms
of COVID-19. Responding officers and medics are ordered to wear
an N95 mask, gloves, eye protection and gowns, the department
said.
Some departments are limiting access to their buildings.
Intercoms have been installed at the entrance doors of all seven
precincts of the Suffolk County police department - also in Long
Island, with nearly 2,500 officers - to screen visitors for
symptoms before allowing entry.
In Dallas, where 34 employees from the police department
have been quarantined and two have tested positive, officers are
no longer physically responding to calls for certain minor
crimes. People are instead being asked to file a report online.
Complaints over shortages of protective gear are growing in
major police departments. The Dallas Police Department, for
instance, has issued N95 masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer to
its more than 3,000 officers. But the police union president
says it’s not enough. Many officers, he said, are using the same
mask for days even though N95 masks are not meant to be reused.
“Those masks are in such dire need,” said Michael Mata,
president of the Dallas Police Association. “We’re in a very bad
spot."
Mata says he’s been told the police department has ordered
more protective gear. A Dallas police spokesman said the new
supplies would be handed out starting Monday and confirmed that
some patrol divisions had run low on gear.
In New York City, resentment over a lack of protective gear
runs deep, according to interviews with current and former
officers. In the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, cops
working on the smoldering rubble of the World Trade Center were
told the air was safe to breathe. Years later, many developed
fatal 9/11-related cancers and illnesses.
“This is even worse than 9/11,” said one NYPD officer. “We
are bringing this home to our families.”
‘BUSINESS AS USUAL’ FOR CRIMINALS
While local stay-home orders and business closures have
paralyzed the economy, they do not appear to have significantly
slowed crime. Reuters reviewed police dispatch records in a
handful of large cities, which showed far fewer traffic stops
but similar rates of calls reporting more serious crimes.
In Baltimore, the Monday after Maryland’s governor issued an
order shutting non-essential businesses, city police reported
making just 71 traffic stops, compared to a daily average of
more than 350 a day in the months before the virus hit, dispatch
records showed.
But dispatches to more serious incidents were not
diminished. The number of calls reporting a family disturbance,
such as domestic fights, for instance, increased slightly after
the governor imposed the first business restrictions on March
16. The number of dispatches involving assaults was largely
unchanged.
Baltimore’s police force did not respond to requests for
comment.
ShotSpotter - a company that tracks gunshots for many large
police departments using networks of microphones - said there
had been no perceptible slowdown in gunfire in New York,
Washington, Chicago, San Francisco or Miami.
“It’s business as usual, sadly, with respect to gun
violence,” said ShotSpotter president Ralph Clark.