Officers reminded not to become complacent to the threat of Coronavirus

OFFICERS shouldn’t be complacent when it comes to keeping themselves safe at work and must observe social distancing as best they can, says Essex Police Federation.

New guidelines have come in, suggesting staying ‘one-metre plus’ away from each other will be sufficient to help stop the spread of the virus.

However, if track and trace identify officers who may have come into contact with COVID-19 and they and those who they have been in contact with have to self-isolate it could ‘wipe out’ shifts, the Federation has warned.

“There is an issue around complacency [about COVID-19] within the force,” Federation Chair Laura Heggie said.

“The restrictions being lowered outside with the general public has bled into the office space, and we have concerns around track and trace and what effect that may have on our resourcing if we start to get officers that have been in contact with the virus.

“It could potentially start wiping out a whole shift if they’re not sticking to the social distancing rules.”

“It’s the general public too – before you saw people staying two metres apart and if someone came within your two metres, people would back off.

“But now people have started sitting next to each other a lot more.

“Although PPE now been made mandatory for public transport, there are still lots of other times where you’re still within that two metres or one-metre plus,” Laura said.

Wearing PPE can be a challenge too  she added, given officers have to wear a lot of kit often in scorching weather.

“With the weather as it’s been recently, it’s not comfortable to be wearing a facemask or gloves and all the other stuff. You can understand why people are getting complacent because it’s also about being comfortable at work,” she said.

“It’s long old shifts, a lot of the times in the hot weather, wearing all the kit that they’re wearing when most people are walking around in shorts and t-shirts, yet they’ve still got to wear all their body-armour, tac vests, all the other equipment that they’re carrying. It just adds to the fatigue.

“It’s a balance, but they’ve got to keep themselves safe because we need them at work, but also their families need them at home,” Laura said.

“So officers need to keep themselves as safe as possible while at work so that they’re not running the possibility that they’re going to go home and pass anything onto family and loved ones.”