Police-led rollout may cause some ‘vaccine hesitancy’

‘There’s distrust of the police in Indigenous and Black communities,’ says civilian board chair

WATERLOO REGION — Choosing deputy police chief Shirley Hilton to lead the vaccine rollout will dissuade some Black people from getting vaccinated against COVID-19, a community leader warns.

“Vaccine hesitancy is of real concern in the Black community,” said Maedith Radlein, a retired school principal who was named senior of the year in Waterloo in 2018.

“One of the things that causes distrust is the involvement of police in vaccine distribution.”

Radlein is helping advise regional government on anti-racism initiatives. She was invited to speak at a briefing on the vaccine rollout held Feb. 18. It can be seen on YouTube.

“There’s distrust of the police in Indigenous and Black communities. There’s a history of violence, of oppression, so the fact that (Waterloo Regional Police) is leading the vaccine distribution has increased vaccine hesitancy,” Radlein told public health leaders including Hilton.

Many front-line health-care workers are Black and immunizing them is important, Radlein said.

“Why was it necessary for police to be involved in vaccine distribution?” she asked regional Chair Karen Redman.

Redman agreed that “based on the history of the police and these communities, this can add to ... vaccine hesitancy.”

“It’s absolutely important that we acknowledge that there is this history of a lack of trust, and there is history between the police and some communities and we need to build confidence in the vaccine and we need the community to help us do that,” said Redman, who chairs the civilian board that oversees police.

Redman said she asked Hilton to lead the local vaccine rollout because the job is complicated and she has the necessary skills.

“We needed someone with experience and professional training,” Redman said. “Shirley has demonstrated her ability to engage with the community and to partner to accomplish major community initiatives.”

At the briefing, Hilton was not asked to respond to Radlein’s concerns. She did not address them at the briefing and did not address them later when The Record reached out.

Radlein told regional government to let the community know who else is helping to distribute the vaccine “so they just don’t see the police directing.”

Redman welcomed questions about police involvement. A second police officer, Insp. Jennifer Davis, is also on the vaccine task force.

“In order to get shared resolutions we have to have tough and sometimes uncomfortable conversations,” Redman said.

Police relations with the Black community soured last July after officers violently arrested an unarmed Somali man with menta-health issues and charged him with dangerous driving.

A prosecutor later dropped the charge.

The arrest happened after thousands marched in Kitchener last June to protest antiBlack racism and police violence.

Data analyzed by The Record has shown that Waterloo Regional Police disproportionately stop Black people for street checks, disproportionately document Black people in the streets for intelligence-gathering purposes, and disproportionately use force against Black people.

At Monday’s briefing, regional government was asked how it will equitably distribute the vaccine to Black people if it is not collecting race-based data on immunization.

Medical officer of health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang said the region has been told to use a provincial immunization database that does not record race.

Wang said the province is working on changing that. The region is considering other ways to collect race-based immunization data and merge it with the provincial system.

Last spring public health rejected a request to collect racebased data on COVID cases. The province ordered the collection of race-related data beginning in July.

This data showed the disease disproportionately affects people of colour, people who are poorer, people who live in larger households, and people whose first language is foreign.