This pandemic has been hard on law enforcement. Many of us have had vacation time taken away. We’ve had numerous schedule changes and increased time away from home. Some of us have even lost loved ones due to the pandemic.
However, as a frontline police supervisor, I can honestly say that the hardest part has been policing ourselves during this crisis.
We are trained to go into dangerous situations and we have become quite good at it. We’re good at recognizing visual threats and taking the appropriate precautionary measures to avoid catastrophe in those situations. What we’re not good at is protecting ourselves against this invisible killer.
According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, 32 Officers have died in the line of duty in the last 3 months. According to various news reports, at least 15 law enforcement officers have already died from COVID-19. To date, more officers have died from COVID-19 than gunfire, vehicle accidents, or any other line of duty cause.
It’s very plausible that COVID-19 deaths among law enforcement will be greater than all other causes combined by the end of the year.
We are several weeks into our various social distancing and stay at home orders. However, I continue to see law enforcement officers meeting car to car, hanging out in the break room, lingering in the garage, congregating at the conclusion of an incident, and making insignificant and unnecessary contacts with members of the public.
This is a difficult time for us. We are a family and we are used to being close to one another, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. We rely on one another to be close and have our “six” so that we can go home safe at the end of the day.
However, being close to one another is the most dangerous thing we can do right now.
Making these abrupt changes has been a challenge. Officers tend to have a bulletproof mentality because we have to fight fear on a daily basis. We have to believe that we’re bulletproof in order to face the challenges that come our way.
But this situation is different.
Frontline supervisors need to help their officers understand that they’re not “bulletproof” to this virus. We have to treat this virus as if it was a physical threat. If it was a physical threat we would work on an operational and tactical plan to deal with it. We would approach the situation carefully and tactfully to give ourselves a strategic advantage. We would utilize whatever tools we had to safely resolve the situation.
As frontline leaders we need to ensure that this message is heard, understood, and followed. Now, more than ever, we need to protect our officers from themselves. We need to make sure that they’re practicing social distancing among themselves and wearing their personal protective equipment (PPE) when they need to.
They wouldn’t go into an active shooter without a gun; likewise they shouldn’t be going into a potential COVID-19 situation without proper PPE. It could easily end up being just as catastrophic. We must lead by example and work to change the social norms within this profession…at least for now.
We also need to curb their ingrained desires to do the honorable police work that they’re used to doing on a daily basis. As a leader of a proactive unit, our job is to proactively target crime and arrest bad guys. That is the expectation within this profession and often what you are evaluated on at the end of the year.
This virus changes that expectation.
It has caused us to abruptly change the way we do business. We need to police smarter and always evaluate if the “juice is worth the squeeze.” It’s time to promote a different agenda. Let the team know that this is probably the one time in your career that we are going to require you do the bare minimum.
Submitted by Sergeant Lesley Kenyon
BIO: I am a Police Sergeant with 12 years of experience. During those 12 years I have worked as a Patrol Officer, a Street Crime Investigator, a Patrol Sergeant, and Criminal Interdiction Unit Sergeant. I have my Master’s Degree in Leadership and Management. I attended the National Command and Staff College in 2019 where I was the recipient of the Magnus Leader Award. I also serve as a Board Member for The House of Shields which is a non-profit organization that provides free lodging to Law Enforcement Officers that need to travel to Rochester, MN for medical treatment at the Mayo Clinic.
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