Police Covid

Police and sheriff's departments throughout the region are dealing with covid 19 - trying to minimize their risks, while performing their duties.

Police and sheriff's departments throughout the region are dealing with covid 19 - trying to minimize their risks, while performing their duties.

In tupelo, several police department employees tested positive for the coronavirus.

As allie martin shows us officers are taking extra steps to keep things safe and make sure there's no shortage of patrolmen.

When shelter in place orders were issued back in the spring, police officers did not get to work from home, they still had to be on the streets, doing their jobs.

But when several tpd employees tested positive for covid 19, they were quarantined, and precautions continued to protect officers and the public.

Whenever a patrolman comes to tupelo police headquarters nats their unit is wiped down.

And at the end of each 12 hour shift, the cleaning is repeated.

The precautions were in place before several employees tested positive for covid 19, and those precautions are now part of the daily routine, which includes cleaning of office space every morning.

"pre covid, we had to do a real good job of keeping things clean, by nature of the business we're in, we come in contact with a lot of people that may have been sick or have some type of disease , so cleanliness and personal protective equipment were part of our routine even before covid hit."

Captain chuck mcdougald says once the positive tests were reported, the employees were sent home to self quarantine, and adjustments were made to ensure there was no shortage of officers protecting the public.

"we've been able to maintain all of our shifts at optimal levels, special units at optimal levels, with reserve on standby if there was a reason to bring other officers in , we got them ready to go."

New policies have also been put in place for court hearings, to keep everyone safer.

"we do a lot of telecommunication s now, with court, historically we would bring someone from jail to court and back, now we do all that via tele conference, facebook or zoom , that lets us eliminate possibility of cross contamination between different buildings, that's working well, would assume that would continue on to the future once we're past this current crisis."

The city of tupelo has had a hiring freeze because of the economic impact due to covid 19 related shutdowns.

But that could be lifted for the police department, to make sure there are more than enough officers on the streets during these uncertain times.

In tupelo, allie martin, wcbi news captain mcdougald also says the public has shown its support for the police by bringing food, along with masks, hand sanitizer and gloves and other personal protective equipment for officers.