The coronavirus pandemic is taking a toll on police departments across the country as more and more employees fall ill, prompting fears ab...
The coronavirus pandemic is taking a toll on police departments across the country as more and more employees fall ill, prompting fears about their ability to keep crime under control.
In New York City, nearly one tenth of the NYPD called out sick on Tuesday after the number of coronavirus cases within its ranks spiked 38 percent overnight to 211.
In Detroit, three members of the police department died this week after testing positive for COVID-19 - a police captain, a ranking officer and a civilian dispatcher.
At least six other members of the Detroit Police Department have also been infected and roughly 200 others were placed under quarantine after the outbreak was first reported.
In Los Angeles, least eight LAPD officers have tested positive for coronavirus as of Wednesday, including two of the department's most senior command staff.
Police forces in large cities and small towns alike are bracing for outbreaks that threaten to wipe out entire units - leaving a shortage of officers on the street.
The coronavirus pandemic is taking a toll on police departments across the US as more and more employees fall ill, prompting fears about their ability to control crime. In New York City, nearly one tenth of the NYPD called out sick Tuesday after the number of cases within its ranks spiked 38 percent overnight. A lone NYPD officer is seen in Times Square on Sunday
Nationwide, 59,986 coronavirus cases and 823 deaths have been confirmed as of Wednesday
The coronavirus pandemic has forced a fundamental shift in policing in the US, as departments across the country urge officers to limit contact with the public.
'You can literally wipe out an entire platoon of officers if you didn't know whether someone really tested positive or not,' Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Washington DC-based consulting firm Police Executive Research Forum (PERF).
'Having someone sit at home for 14 days, two weeks, is a huge loss for a department. Huge. This is keeping officers safe and in service.'
Officials have warned that major investigations could grind to a halt as desk staff are asked to put on uniforms and cover 911 calls and street patrols amid mounting fears of looting at businesses forced to shutter under containment policies.
Adding to anxieties several prisons including in New York and Los Angeles have begun releasing inmates early to protect them from outbreaks inside crowded lockups.
The coronavirus pandemic has forced a fundamental shift in policing in the US, as departments across the country urge officers to limit contact with the public. An NYPD officer is seen wearing a mask as he talks to citizens on Tuesday in Queens
Several departments have asked desk staff to cover 911 calls as an increasing number of uniformed officers fall ill. Medics are seen treating a patient in Seattle on Monday
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea took to Twitter on Tuesday to urge people in New York and across the country to stay home to help protect first responders, healthcare workers and others who are still reporting to work amid widespread coronavirus closures.
Of the 211 NYPD cases confirmed to date, 177 are uniformed officers and 34 are civilian employees.
Nearly 2,800 officers - roughly 7.6 percent of the NYPD's uniformed workforce - were home sick on Tuesday, more than double the number of call-outs on a typical day.
Last week, the 1st Precinct had to bring in the NYPD Movie and Television unit to cover shifts because so many officers called out sick.
The NYPD has insisted that the depleted ranks will not interrupt usual patrols around the city, which has one of the highest crime rates in the nation.
The department has also said it is hiring additional staff to clean facilities in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
New York currently has more COVID-19 cases than any other state, with 30,811 of the 59,986 confirmed in the US and 285 of the nation's 823 deaths as of Wednesday.
The majority of the state's cases are concentrated in New York City, where 17,856 people have tested positive and 192 have died.
Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday announced plans to release 300 criminals from the notorious Rikers Island lockup to stop them from contracting coronavirus.
The criminals will be those who have committed misdemeanors or non-violent felonies and who have less than a year on their sentence.
De Blasio's move was expected to draw criticism from his political enemies and the NYPD, many of whom say he is too lenient on criminals.
On Wednesday, family members confirmed that a former NYPD cop had died from coronavirus, the first death directly linked to the department.
Retired NYPD cop Arthur L Green passed away aged 49 at a Bronx hospital on Monday
Arthur L Green, who was nicknamed 'The Green Mile' because of his faint resemblance to the character John Coffey in the Stephen King movie with the same title, passed away aged 49 at a Bronx hospital on Monday, his wife Tiffany Whitlock told the New York Daily News.
Green was known in the NYPD as a 'gentle giant' who once dreamed of joining the NBA after playing for the St John's University basketball team.
After graduating and determining that professional basketball wasn't in his future, he changed course and became a cop.
'He was always eager to learn, very smart. A people person, everybody knows him in the street,' said NYPD Detective Tracey Travis, who worked with Green in Transit District 12.
Another colleague, former NYPD Assistant Commissioner Robert Gonzalez, told the Daily News: 'Arthur Green was missed when he made the decision to retire early from the NYPD and certainly will be missed by friends and family and those who knew him.'
Green's wife Whitlock said she believes her husband contracted COVID-19 while attending a friend's birthday party in Yonkers on March 14.
That friend tested positive for the deadly strain days later.
Green's wife, Tiffany Whitlock, said she believes her husband (pictured together) contracted COVID-19 while attending a friend's birthday party in Yonkers on March 14
Green was particularly susceptible to coronavirus complications as he suffered from poor health, including acute asthma.
He was rushed to the hospital on Friday but doctors sent him home, believing his symptoms were caused by pneumonia.
'His symptoms weren't bad enough,' Whitlock said. 'They gave him something for the cough. He had a fever but it went away.'
By Monday he was back in the hospital complaining of difficulty breathing, at which point doctors diagnosed him with COVID-19. He died hours later.
Whitlock says she believes her husband was misdiagnosed the first time and said 'he could have had a chance' if they'd made the right call.
'I'm still waiting to pick up his belongings, but I can't go nowhere near the hospital,' she said.
The majority of New Yprk state's cases are concentrated in the Big Apple, where 17,856 people have tested positive and 192 have died as of Wednesday
Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday announced plans to release 300 criminals from the notorious Rikers Island lockup (pictured) to stop them from contracting coronavirus
The Detroit Police Department recorded its first coronavirus fatality on Monday when a 38-year-old 911 dispatcher died from the virus, which has infected 574 people and killed 11 in the city to date.
Police Chief James Craig, Mayor Mike Duggan and the city's medical adviser Dr Robert Dunne held a press conference about the dispatcher's death on Tuesday morning but did not reveal his name.
'On Monday (March 16), he wasn't feeling well,' Duggan said. 'He came back to work Wednesday; Thursday he was off sick; by Saturday, his mom called and said he was in ICU in a suburban hospital with what was thought to be bronchitis.'
Captain Jonathan Parnell (pictured) was one of three members of the Detroit Police Department who have died from coronavirus this week
Hours later officials announced the second death - Captain Jonathan Parnell.
'He was a well respected commanding officer in the Police Department,' Craig said of the 50-something father of three.
'Many revered him as an iconic figure, loved by many, but followed by more.'
Parnell, who went by the nickname 'Recon', was the head of the department's major crimes unit and previously held several roles in homicide, sex crimes, child abuse and narcotics.
'He was a great guy, very tactical, very smart, he was a street cop, a real street cop, very polite, very humble,' a colleague of Parnell told Deadline Detroit.
The captain had no known underlying health conditions, according to officials.
On Wednesday morning a DPD spokesman confirmed that a ranking officer had died from COVID-19. That officer's name has not been disclosed.
At least six other members of the Detroit Police Department have also been infected and roughly 200 others were placed under quarantine after the outbreak was first reported - stretching the remaining staff thin across the city (pictured on Tuesday)
A police vehicle is seen directing traffic at the entrance to the Detroit-Windsor tunnel
The Los Angeles Police Department has also seen a surge in positive cases in recent days as more officers have received tests after showing symptoms.
As of Monday evening, eight police officers and one civilian employee had tested positive for the virus out of 14 total screened.
Two of the highest ranking officers in the LAPD were among those infected, officials told the LA Times.
A Pacific Division supervisor was the first person to test positive over a week ago and was subsequently hospitalized, the department said on March 15.
The country's second largest law enforcement agency is expected to see more confirmed cases as the pandemic continues.
'The Department has strict protocols for any employee who experiences symptoms of the virus. They are instructed to go home and their work spaces are sanitized,' officials said in a statement.
'The health and safety of our men and women continue to be our top priority and we will make every effort to test individuals experiencing symptoms.'
The LAPD has ordered thousands of additional protective N-95 masks for its officers making contact with potentially-infected members of the public and is expected to increase staffing in the coming weeks.
Earlier this month, the department said it would shift half the detectives working in community stations to daily patrol to ensure public peace.
Arrests made by the LAPD and the LA County Sheriff's Department have already dropped significantly due to the pandemic after both agencies ordered officers to cite and release people whenever possible for low-level offenses.
A police cruiser is seen in the middle of an empty street in Los Angeles over the weekend
LAPD Lt Jay Hom assembles safety kits to protect field officers from exposure to coronavirus
Department outbreaks are putting a significant strain on operations as entire units are forced into quarantine.
In San Jose, California, 30 employees were sent home after a reserve police officer tested positive for COVID-19 last week - including 10 members of the department's family violence unit.
'Just this one incident could create an issue with regards to investigations of those real high-profile domestic violence, child abuse cases,' Sgt Paul Kelly, president of the San Jose Police Officers Association, told USA Today.
Kelly expressed concern that the pandemic could deplete the entire force in the city of more than one million people, grinding major investigations to a halt if detectives, administrative and special operations staff have to put on uniforms and respond to 911 calls.
Departments in small towns are also bracing for the worst, as a single outbreak could take an entire staff out of commission.
'The next two to four weeks is critical in how we battle this epidemic,' said Robert Bongiorno, the police chief in Bedford, Massachusetts.
Bongiorno says he is preparing for the pandemic to take out nearly half of his staff of 41 in the town of 14,000.
The WHO has warned that the US could soon become the epicenter of the global pandemic as the nation continues to see a 'very large acceleration' in number of cases
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