‘We have the Covid-19 pandemic... and we also have a pandemic of stupidity from the White House’
PEOPLE ON THE FRONT LINE IN THE USA HAVE RECEIVED NO DIRECT COMMUNICATION FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
A Co Wexford born police chief in America has told this newspaper that the problem faced by US citizens in the fight against Covid-19 is being compounded by a ‘complete lack of guidance’ from the White House.
Jennifer Tejada is the Chief of Police in Emeryville, which is a small city about 30 minutes from San Francisco.
Originally, a Stacey from New Ross, she emigrated to America in 1987 and although she originally intended to stay in the States for a short period, as she told this newspaper, ‘ life had a different path’ for her.
Chief Tejada is recognised state-wide across California as a strong advocate for community outreach work and in 2013, she was the recipient of the James Q Wilson award in Community Policing.
Throughout her career, she has created programmes and worked in a leadership capacity in several specialised areas, including threat management, emergency and disaster preparedness, workplace violence prevention, domestic violence and sexual assault prevention, and hostage negotiation.
She has also served on several violence prevention and victim services committees, boards and commissions, both locally and regionally in the State of California.
Responsible for policing a population of around 40,000 people, she said the police force in America is under severe pressure at the moment and is not receiving any support from President Trump.
‘The way I would put it is that America is facing two pandemics at the moment,’ she told this newspaper.
‘We have the coronavirus pandemic and we also have a pandemic of stupidity from the White House,’ she said.
The area over which Chief Tejada has responsibility stretches from Berkeley to Oakland and she said that the onset of Covid-19 has placed enormous pressure on resources.
‘We have confirmed cases here and one of the challenges placed on law enforcement is that we do not know who has it or not when responding to a call,’ she said.
‘We are not entitled to know who or where in the city we have confirmed cases because of privacy laws,’ she added.
She highlighted one incident where officers were tasked to check on a relative of a person who expressed concern for the relative’s welfare and when the officers arrived at the house, the relative told them she had tested positive.
‘Another lady called but also told us that she had tested positive just so we knew before responding,’ said Chief Tejada.
She said the stress of not knowing if a person they are responding too is Covid-19 positive or not is compounding the stress that officers already experience.
‘First responders have additional stress on them because of that,’ she said.
‘I am very proud of my workforce and what they are doing in very difficult circumstances,’ she added.
With the inherent attention to detail and the high level of professionalism that has seen her rise through the ranks of policing, Chief Tejada implemented measures to counteract the threat posed to the safety of her officers by the coronavirus before President Trump finally began to do likewise across the country.
‘I divided up my district in half on March 16 and put some of them on paid leave for 14 days,’ she said.
‘The other half worked 12 hours on and 12 hours off and they did that for 14 days and then they switched around last Monday,’ she added.
However, before the incoming crew walked through the door of the police building, they were preceded by a sanitising crew.
‘The crew going off duty went out the back door and the incoming officers came in through the front door but we made sure that the whole building was sanitised so they were coming into a clean working environment,’ said Chief Tejada.
‘We sanitised the department from the front ahead of the crew coming in so they were walking into a sterile environment,’ she added.
‘We are doing everything we can to keep our station a sterile environment.’
With regard to changes in policing that have been necessitated as result of the coronavirus, Chief Tejada said her officers only respond to ‘Priority 1’ calls at the moment.
‘Those would be serious crimes in progress but say if your car has been vandalised, we will not call out to that,’ she said.
However, there are phone mechanisms in place for the force to deal with such incidents from members of the public.
‘We have reduced person-to-person contact as much as we can,’ said Chief Tejada.
‘There are multiple layers to the challenge we face,’ she added.
‘We do not know anything about this virus and we didn’t have instructions on whether or not to wear face masks until a few days ago.’
Chief Tejada said the slow response from the federal government in dealing with the crisis has made the situation more serious that it should have been.
While President Trump, erroneously, boasts in his press briefings that America is carrying out more tests than any other country in the world the reality on the ground for first responders is far different to that portrayed by the country’s Commander-in-Chief.
‘People are asymptomatic and there are no tests available, so people could be carriers and that, for me as leader, is one concern,’ said Chief Tejada.
‘Another challenge is to keep people motivated and to make sure they know I have their wellbeing front and centre of my priorities,’ she added.
‘I am here for them and to keep them informed; they know my first priority is to take care of them.’
She went on to comment that is what’s expected from a leader but it’s something that President Trump is not doing.
‘We have two pandemics,’ she said.
‘The first is Covid-19 and the second pandemic is the stupidity of the federal government because that is a pandemic of stupidity,’ she added.
‘I have no qualms about criticising the way this was all mishandled by Trump and his inept cabinet.’
Chief Tejada feels very strongly about the steps that should have been taken but weren’t by the American government.
‘He [President Trump] could have taken action last December but was incompetent and didn’t do anything,’ she said.
‘I do not call him a leader because I don’t think he’s worthy of that word,’ she added.
Chief Tejada said there have been many consequences because of what she described as ‘a lack of effective leadership’.
She said it’s ‘extremely frustrating’ from a policing perspective and that positive and pro-active measures should have been taken months ago.
Chief Tejada then revealed that the police force had received no direct communication from the White House and have been effectively left to their own devices.
She gave an example of when she sought some non-touch thermometers for her officers.
‘I had to go on my own Facebook page asking if anyone had some we could borrow,’ she said.
She found two in a location ‘five cities away’.
‘I had to drive there to pick them up,’ said Chief Tejada.
While President Trump busies himself with giving his followers the impression that the world is looking to America for help in fighting the pandemic the truth is that the lack of resources and basic equipment for first responders on the ground appears akin to a third world country.
When other agencies found
THEY CAN TEST A TIGER FOR CORONAVIRUS BUT THEY DON’T HAVE TEST KITS FOR MY COPS WHO ARE ON THE FRONTLINE
out Chief Tejada had secured some non-touch thermometers, they contacted her and asked if they could get a lend of one.
‘I gave one away to another agency because they needed it,’ she said.
However, a local medical centre then contacted her to say they had some of the thermometers which she gratefully accepted.
In the interim, she has been contacted by agencies in places like Tucson, Texas and Arizona – places in different states that are in excess of a thousand miles away from where she is.
‘Every police agency in this country is on its own at the moment,’ said Chief Tejada.
A police chief in Florida asked Chief Tejada for assistance and she was also contacted by people in Colorado seeking help.
She said she tunes into Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo’s daily briefings to keep herself informed as to what is happening in New York.
She said it was incredible that a tiger tested positive for coronavirus in an American zoo – not because of the fact an animal tested positive but that it was tested in the first place.
‘They can test a tiger for it but they have no test kits available for my cops on the front line; that is just ridiculous,’ she said.
‘They [the officers] are out in the community and I would love to be reassured that they are safe and not infecting others,’ she added.
Chief Tejada said test kits should be available to all frontline workers.
Within her own city area, there is one testing centre but to get tested people have to have all of the symptoms associated with the virus and be referred from a physician.
She is also very critical of the fact that someone has ‘ be on their last gasp breath’ before they get tested.
‘That blows my mind because if someone has a fever and a dry cough it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that it is likely the coronavirus,’ she said.
‘It’s the people who do not have all the symptoms that I want tested and we have to make the tests more widely available,’ she added.
‘We are a first world country but it doesn’t seem like it.’
While she is obviously worried about her family and friends in America, for Chief Tejada there is the double whammy of being away from her family in Wexford during the crisis.
‘I am worried about my family there as well,’ she said.
‘I am saddened by the fact I don’t know when I will get to go back to visit,’ she added.
While her original intention was to stay in America for a short period after she arrived in 1987, she said she has no complaints about how things turned out and she feels privileged to be in the position she is in as the country fights ‘two pandemics’.
Chief Tejada also feels that ironically people are coming together through technology because the current situation is forcing people to think outside the box.
She is organising conference calls to let the community know the police force is still there for people and to reassure the public.
‘I think this might change some of the ways we do things,’ she said.
She also feels that people are making an effort to embrace technology more to reach out to each other within the community and even within some of her own social circles that’s also happening.
‘I think, in some ways, the way people are interacting with each other now is even more meaningful because of the way they are having to do it.’
Chief Tejada also feels it’s important to keep positive because everyone is under a lot of pressure and stress because of the virus.
‘It’s a global pandemic and that’s what so different about this because it’s something that is affecting the entire world,’ she said.
‘We are all in this together and by working together and helping each other and supporting each other, we will get through it.’