OFFICERS shouldn\u2019t be complacent when it comes to keeping themselves safe at work and must observe social distancing as best they can, says Essex Police Federation.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
New guidelines have come in, suggesting staying \u2018one-metre plus\u2019 away from each other will be sufficient to help stop the spread of the virus.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
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 \u2018wipe out\u2019 shifts, the Federation has warned.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
\u201cThere is an issue around complacency [about COVID-19] within the force,\u201d Federation Chair Laura Heggie said.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
\u201cIt could potentially start wiping out a whole shift if they\u2019re not sticking to the social distancing rules.\u201d<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the general public too – before you saw people staying two metres apart and if someone came within your two metres, people would back off.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
\u201cBut now people have started sitting next to each other a lot more.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough PPE now been made mandatory for public transport, there are still lots of other times where you\u2019re still within that two metres or one-metre plus,\u201d Laura said.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
Wearing PPE can be a challenge too \u00a0she added, given officers have to wear a lot of kit often in scorching weather.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
\u201cWith the weather as it\u2019s 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\u2019s also about being comfortable at work,\u201d she said.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s long old shifts, a lot of the times in the hot weather, wearing all the kit that they\u2019re wearing when most people are walking around in shorts and t-shirts, yet they\u2019ve still got to wear all their body-armour, tac vests, all the other equipment that they\u2019re carrying. It just adds to the fatigue.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a balance, but they\u2019ve got to keep themselves safe because we need them at work, but also their families need them at home,\u201d Laura said.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
\u201cSo officers need to keep themselves as safe as possible while at work so that they\u2019re not running the possibility that they\u2019re going to go home and pass anything onto family and loved ones.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
OFFICERS shouldn\u2019t 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\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":134330,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134259"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=134259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134381,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134259\/revisions\/134381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/134330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=134259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=134259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=134259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}