Why are the police not wearing PPE or staying 2 m apart?

[pontypridd]

We saved a lost child today - out on our walk. The police came to help and none of them were wearing PPE. None of them kept even 1 m apart from each other, us or the lost child.

This is the 5/6th time we've personally encountered the police during this lockdown. Every time - there's a collection of them with no PPE. And they don't social distance from us, other members of public or from each other.

Why are the police not complaining about the lack of PPE and social distancing for themselves at work - as teachers and the NHS staff are?

Or do they know something that the rest of us don't?

[Madwife123]

The thing is the surgical masks worn by NHS staff won’t actually stop us from getting CoVid, it’s to stop us passing it onto our patients. As we are exposed daily masks are worn for all contact to prevent spreading it. So wearing them in public isn’t as necessarily and won’t help unless everyone is wearing them, although won’t do any harm.

[Derbygerbil]

I think I’m talking crap... Sorry - had bit to drink. The Police do a great job and I accept you can’t do your job if you’re dressed up to the nines in PPE. Thank you for everything you do.

[ineedaholidaynow]

Other countries especially Asian ones seem to cope much better with wearing masks than we do, and you see police officers wearing them in those countries.

[CoachBombay]

Ineedaholidaynow masks are a social norm in Asia, they are used to not getting a full face for non verbal communication, our society is not. Children have been raised in Asia and have become accustomed to the face mask. They even have children's face masks.

You only have to look at the unprecedented and unwarranted uproar about a teacher of Muslim faith possibly wearing a full face veil to understand that British society is very uneasy about full face coverings and the impact on communication.

It's also a point raised in the ongoing Teacher PPE discussion, will face masks scare children?

Children are taught in trouble find a police officer, not to sure of a face mask would hinder their trust to do so.

As an adult myself, I find it very difficult to communicate and understand others effectively with a face mask on, I do believe I have a slight hearing impairment because I do rely on lip reading a bit to fill in parts of a conversation.

[Bunnyfuller]

No PPE? Er because we haven’t got enough! 2m distance - pop into your average report room or custody suite....you are having a laugh.

Arresting and searching people makes 2m impossible, many interview rooms don’t allow 2m...the list goes on.

It doesn’t make it right, not one bit right, and I admire education and medicine taking a stand.

The police cannot refuse to work or go on strike. Why do people post such ignorant questions without even attempting to find out facts. The first 6w of lockdown, even though lots of us could have worked from home, in theory, we couldn’t, because penny pinching from year on year Tory cuts left us with a woefully inadequate IT network. So we went in. Me personally with a heart condition.

[MrsAmaro]

Good on you derbygerbil

[Thurlow]

So police officers have to work without PPE because there's none given to them in most cases, yet the comment is that they're putting the public at risk? Fuck me, that's a first even for MN.

[Laniakea]

@MrsAmaro I think a lot of people don’t realise how vast is the NHS - it’s one of the biggest employers in the world, obviously in absolute numbers there will be lots of employees infected (HCPs & non HCPs), but the evidence is that they are not disproportionately affected ... that doesn’t sell papers though!

www.hsj.co.uk/exclusive-deaths-of-nhs-staff-from-covid-19-analysed/7027471.article

[wonderstuff]

I'm a teacher, we have 1200 children on roll, I and several of my students and a couple of other staff members did become unwell shortly after lockdown. Probably covid but no testing was available then. I don't think that teachers should have ppe, I don't think we should return to full classes until it is safe.

I can't tell you how worried I was about the number of people I'd potentially spread the virus to when I was unwell. I think we need to do what we can to limit the number of students each teacher comes into contact with and we need a reliable test and contact tracing system. No reason why schools shouldn't go back once that's in place and the level of community illness is sufficiently low.

[greathat]

How has a thread about police officers turned into one about teachers? The jobs are completely different

[ThatsWhatHeroesDo]

Police aren't wearing PPE because they don't have it. I know people on response teams who were given 4 disposable masks for a set of 6 shifts. One large force has ordered 250000 non surgical face coverings. Sounds a lot but if you have 12500 operational officers changing it once a shift, that's maybe a fortnight's supply. Of course you can't do police work from 2m apart. Imagine being beaten up and robbed and having to yell about it across the street to the officer who turned up.

Sickness absence is actually pretty low even though officers are interacting with large numbers of people every day and are targeting the sort of people more likely than others to have Covid.

[wonderstuff]

First post said police weren't complaining but teachers were then a few people said teachers don't understand ppe. I may be a little sensitive at the moment.

[Nicknacky]

wonderstuff To be fair, it was a post about police and social distancing etc. You are rightly free to post what I want but I did read your posting thinking that not every thing has to be about teachers and wondered of you posted on the wrong thread.

[Barbie222]

It's not needed when working with the general public. Teachers don't understand this.

It is advised that you should take steps to keep 2m distance from people. Passing contact is less risky than long term contact where you are in the same enclosed space as others for more than 15 minutes. That's why we are not proposing that people reopen bars and restaurants yet, because there would be a high risk of the virus spreading.

Teachers do understand the bit about being in a confined space with other people, thankfully. That's why they are wondering why it doesn't matter if you are in close contact with 15 children for a few hours, but not allowed to sit with family for a few hours. I doubt anyone spends a few hours sitting at arms length from a supermarket worker. The ones I've seen are too busy moving around to do that, and the ones on the tolls are shielded.

[Bubblebee7]

The police aren’t dropping like flies because most people they come into contact with it probably don’t have it. Nurses actually work with positive cases of COVID. Nurses and lots of other jobs are suppose to social distance it’s not possible not just the distance but like another poster said they sit in the same car and so on..

[Ledkr]

My husband is police and although tries his best to stay safe its inpossible.
He leaves his uniform at work apart from when it needs washing and he showers as soon as he gets home, washes hands often etc. I was scared at first but i try not to think about it now.

[Nicknacky]

Bubblebee7 Why wouldn’t the people we come into contact not be likely to have it?

[Kangourou]

There's a difference between PPE (protects the wearer) and face masks, even surgical ones, which are legally classed as medical devices, not PPE, and protect other people.

I'm not in the UK. Police where I am are wearing masks, but we also have compulsory mask-wearing in certain shopping areas (and recommended in all shops), all public transport etc and are slowly being provided with masks by the authorities, so it's becoming more normalised.

[Avenueofcherryblossom]

as though they’re magically protected

That seems to be the case in general with the police though. The police are expected to put themselves in harms way every day with fairly limited protection. Look at the first police officers to arrive at the London Bridge attacks, they were just armed with sticks. A man tried to murder a police officer in Hendon just a few weeks ago and last week I saw a report about a man who attacked and injured police officers in Essex as they arrested him for attempting to murder two other police officers.

Police officers don’t have a choice about working and generally they just get on with the job despite the dangers.

[CoachBombay]

AvenueofCherryBlossom I agree with you.

Police are doing an incredibly difficult job generally let alone during a global pandemic they are under staffed, under payed and under appreciated for the work they do.

[EnthusiasmIsDisturbed]

I work in mh. Only time we wear PPE is when we were caring for someone with covid. We do a lot of cleaning through

We can’t socially distance at work either.

Probably makes us more relaxed about the social distancing and less fearful of catching covid.

[Lifeisabeach09]

The police aren’t dropping like flies because most people they come into contact with it probably don’t have it. Nurses actually work with positive cases of COVID.

In England, an estimated 1 in 400 have tested positive for covid based on 11000 people sampled.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52662066

[Bunnyfuller]

Actually, lots of police are catching it. But you won’t find that in the news because....police. Much more fun to bash them, right.

A colleague died a week ago, in her chair at home. She had been 111 triaged as not needing hospital despite breathing difficulties and she died overnight. I know of several people personally in the job who have it/have had it.

Why do people let the media dictate their views?

[Nicknacky]

Bunnyfuller That’s terrible, my sympathy to you all.

We had at one point, on average of 120 uniformed officers off due to exposure, symptoms etc however no testing was available, that was out of about 700 officers (I think). But it was no where near the numbers we were fearing and certainly in my department we have only had one confirmed and a few others off with isolation.

We were all given uniform for the expected return to uniform but it’s never been needed. Thankfully.

[Bleepbloopblarp]

Maybe police are generally fit-ish and youngish and that’s why they aren’t “dropping like flies”. Are police allowed to be very overweight?! (Genuinely don’t know).

But, yes there are loads of professions still working without PPE who aren’t dropping like flies. Doctors/nurses/nhs workers are obvs in closest contact with covid patients so are most susceptible to catching it.