Police chief hopes officers can be included in Phase 2 of COVID vaccine rollout plan

Saskatoon Police Chief Troy Cooper, who has just recovered after falling ill with COVID-19, told the Board of Police Commissioners on Thursday he hopes his officers will be listed as a priority group in the next phase of the province’s vaccine rollout plan.

So far, he says, 19 staff — including 17 police officers — have contracted the virus while “countless” other officers have had to isolate after coming into contact with a positive staff member or member of the public.

“We’re looking very forward to the potential of a vaccine for our staff,” he said. “As you can imagine, the stress and the dangers and risks our staff are facing as the enforcement arm of the public health orders (are prevalent).”

Police officers were not listed as priority candidates for the vaccine in Phase 1, but Cooper said he’s hopeful they will be during Phase 2.

“We’ll see whether or not that occurs, but we’re hoping to be part of those discussions,” he said. “We’ve been talking to the appropriate ministries and we’ll see where we get to.”

He explained that so far in 2021, police have had 72 complaints of public health order violations and have handed out four tickets. He added his staff deal with suspected COVID cases often.

“We do our own enforcement of course, (such as) when we’re confronted with a violation when we’re on patrol or we investigate something that’s egregious while we’re responding to a complaint from a citizen,” Cooper said.

Officers also sometimes help public health inspectors carry out their duties.

Mayor Charlie Clark offered his support as well.

“I have been aware of the concerns raised about the lack of clarity about when police will be in the queue for vaccines and the risk they’re continuing to face,” he said.

Clark told the commission he would continue to raise the issue at the provincial level.