North Carolina’s police officers were some of the first people in the state to be able to get the coronavirus vaccine. Just by the nature of their work, officers and deputies were in frequent close contact with other people through the pandemic, and continue to be.
Law enforcement officers are not required to get the COVID-19 vaccine in North Carolina, and many police departments around the state do not track how many officers are vaccinated.
Questions sent to some of the biggest departments in the state found that only one, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, tracked how many employees were vaccinated.
Raleigh, Wilmington, Winston-Salem, Rocky Mount, Fayetteville, Greenville and Greensboro said they do not track how many officers got the coronavirus vaccine.
Nationwide last year, the coronavirus pandemic was the leading cause of on-duty deaths for police officers, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. Of 264 law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty, 145 died from COVID-19.
The coronavirus has killed eight law enforcement officers in North Carolina, according to The Officer Down Memorial Page, which tracks deaths of on-duty officers.
Many departments are working with local public health departments to help officers get their shots.
Greensboro Police Department spokesman Ron Glenn said his department is keeping a “rough estimate,” but officers don’t have to get vaccinated, and they don’t have to tell the department either way.
A recent story in the Washington Post found that, in many departments around the country, vaccination rates for police officers lag compared to the communities they serve, at least for the departments that track the numbers.
Many metropolitan departments don’t track how many officers are vaccinated, mirroring what Spectrum News 1 found in North Carolina.
Some departments in North Carolina have tried to make it easier for officers to get vaccinated or have given incentives.
In Wilmington, for example, the city gives police officers four hours and $25 if they choose to get the vaccine, according to Lt. Leslie Irving, spokeswoman for the department.
“Even though the police department held a vaccination drive here, a lot of our employees received the vaccine from other sources,” she said.
“We are not actively tracking how many officers/employees are getting the vaccine. I believe this is protected information under HIPPA, unless the employee volunteers to share this information,” Fayetteville Police Maj. Roberto Bryan said in an email, referencing medical privacy laws.
He said officers in his department can get vaccinated several ways, including the Veteran’s Administration, Cape Fear Valley Health System and the Cumberland County Health Department.
“I don’t have an accurate way to determine how many employees have been vaccinated. I do have a list of personnel that signed up to get vaccinated, but it was probably less than 1/3 of the department employees. This doesn’t mean that only 1/3 are vaccinated, it just means that 1/3 used Cape Fear Valley Health System to get their vaccine,” Bryan said.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department does track the vaccination rate for its employees.
“The number of vaccinated employees is approximately 1,400, or 60% of the entire department. Please note, this is for total employees and not just sworn officers,” Charlotte police spokeswoman Officer Katherine Acosta told Spectrum News 1.
That number is higher than the state as a whole. Statewide, 52% of adults are at least partially vaccinated, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
In Mecklenburg County, 42% of the entire population is at least partially vaccinated, which mirrors the statewide numbers, according to the county.
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May 21, 2021 at 09:31PM
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How many NC police officers got a coronavirus vaccine? - Spectrum News
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