‘It does take a toll’: Saskatoon police officer isolates for fourth time after on-duty COVID exposure

Imagine stopping a dangerous crime or saving someone’s life after an overdose, only to have to immediately isolate away from your family for two weeks.

For many police officers, that is a reality.

Cst. Mitch Barber of the Saskatoon Police Service knows it all too well. On four separate occasions, he has had to isolate after coming into close contact with someone who was infected with COVID while Barber was on duty.

He is isolating right now, after being part of a crew who responded to an overdose.

Yesterday morning, three 👮‍♀️’s responded to an overdose. Narcan was successfully used and the individual was transported to hospital, where it was determined they were + for COVID-19. All three 👮‍♀️’s are isolating; one of them on his 4th isolation away from his family.

— Saskatoon Police (@SaskatoonPolice) April 10, 2021

The combination of worry about contracting the virus, time away from his family and general stress from police work has worn on Barber.

“It does take a toll. I would be lying to you (to say) it doesn’t (take) a toll mentally on myself … No one likes to be away from their family or have to explain to their small children, who don’t get why Dad or Mom has to be away for two weeks away at a time,” he said in an interview with 650 CKOM.

“It’s — I don’t think more so myself, it’s more so my family and now what they have to bear with me not being there as a support network as well.”

Barber has a wife who works at home and two school-aged kids. For them, it hasn’t been easy dealing with quarantine.

“Between her working full-time from home and my kids go to school … she has that burden of me not being there for that assistance. It puts a lot more stress on her and with me not being there and isolating away from home, I (bear) that as well, the stress of not being there to support her,” he said.

“It’s always in the back of our minds.”

He is far from the only officer who has had to isolate after an incident on duty. Hundreds of officers in Saskatoon and Regina have had to isolate since the pandemic hit last year. In fact, Barber’s brother is a sergeant with the Regina Police Service. He has had to quarantine on three separate occasions.

Barber said it’s very common that officers are forced into a situation where exposure to the virus is a big possibility.

“If we’re dealing with an intoxicated person … we have to go, a lot of the time, hands-on with them in affecting an arrest,” he said. “That being said, most people who are in that state of mind do not want to come with the police.

“So, it becomes a point where we’re restraining and struggling with these people. It could be for numerous minutes until additional officers can attend or anything to that effect. These people are typically not masked and probably unaware that they’re carrying COVID.

“In those circumstances where we have to get physical … we run into issues where goggles are fogging up, masks are getting pulled off … There’s a constant battle as things evolve through an arrest in various circumstances that expose us in very close contact. (For example, there are) points where people will be spitting on us, or there are other bodily fluids coming out (like) blood or whatever it may be.”

While Barber has got used to being on the front lines in around 10 years as a Saskatoon police officer, he hammered home that his biggest concern is his family.

“Sometimes throughout the general public, we get responses that, ‘Well, it’s kind of what you signed up for.’ I can accept that as a police officer … It’s just, I (bear) the stress and the guilt of having my family and extended family having to deal with it as well. They didn’t sign up for that.”