Many CT police departments mum on vaccine rates
As a smattering of vaccine mandates begin to take effect in Connecticut, it remains unclear just how many police officers across the state have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
Many of Connecticut’s law enforcement agencies are keeping a lid on their rates, or are not keeping tabs on the information at all, a Hearst Connecticut Media Group review shows.
Vaccination rates for many other kinds of frontline essential workers — those in state government, at hospitals, nursing homes and schools — are crystallizing as a statewide mandate takes effect Monday. But Gov. Ned Lamont’s order to get vaccinated or take weekly tests doesn’t apply to local law enforcement.
Some of the largest departments in Connecticut, including Bridgeport, Hartford and Waterbury either said the information was not available or did not provide the police data after repeated requests. Not all departments appear to keep track, and two, the Fairfield and Bethel police agencies, declined to disclose the information to the public.
Nationwide, reports indicate police officers have been less likely to seek out COVID-19 vaccines than their surrounding communities, though the law enforcement personnel were among the first to become eligible for a vaccine this year. Some police unions, including the one in Stamford, have come out against vaccine requirements, and in Massachusetts dozens of state police resigned last week over that state’s mandate.
All-told, 11 departments responded with their vaccination rates, reporting a high of 95 percent in Redding and a low of 56 percent in New Haven.
Whether Connecticut’s law enforcement personnel is protected against the virus matters not only to the well-being of the officers — COVID-19 is currently the leading cause of death among officers nationwide — but also to the public they interact with.
“Protecting themselves is important, but it’s also about protecting others,” said Dr. Albert Ko, an epidemiologist at Yale University.
“They’re essential workers, and protecting themselves from getting sick and having to leave work would be important for society.”
Ko also said police officers interface with people who may be incarcerated, noting the heightened risk of disease spread within prison walls.
Information is missing too for the State Police, which employs roughly 1,000 troopers, even as a mandate for state employees to either take the vaccine or submit weekly tests goes into effect Monday. Lora Rae Anderson, director of communications for the state’s chief operating officer, said the information is in flux as people continue to submit their vaccination status ahead of the deadline. State troopers patrol the state’s highways and are stationed in towns that lack their own police services.
In Stamford, the state’s third-largest city, 59 percent of the city’s 268 police officers reported being vaccinated. A policy requiring all city employees, including police department personnel, to be fully vaccinated or submit a negative COVID-19 test result each week took effect Sept. 13.
The rate for police is considerably lower than the percent of the town’s population, 12 years old and older, who are fully vaccinated: 82 percent , the highest overall rate among the state’s largest towns.
Data supplied to Hearst Connecticut Media by the city of New Haven shows the 56 percent of police employees fully vaccinated is the lowest rate of all of the town’s bargaining units. Seventy-four percent of all town employees are fully vaccinated. It’s also lower than the portion of eligible residents of the state’s second-largest town who are fully vaccinated — 65 percent .
New Haven was just one of the many towns, hospitals, school districts and state government officers working to collect vaccine data about various employees as local and state mandates take effect. Lamont’s executive order set a deadline of Sept. 27 for all state employees, teachers and most health care workers to get vaccinated or agree to regular testing. Last week, with thousands more vaccination cards being submitted each day, Lamont extended the deadline to Monday. The mandate doesn’t apply to police officers employed by local departments.
Some departments without any kind of vaccine requirement in place said it wouldn’t be possible to share COVID-19 vaccination information.
Police Chief Chris Ciuci of the Berlin Police Department said the office isn’t keeping official tallies of those vaccinated. But he said staff were offered the vaccine through work, and he believes the majority of his force has taken a shot.
The same is true at the East Haven Police Department, where Capt. Joseph Murgo said officers took advantage of opportunities to get a shot through their jobs early in the year, but many others sought out vaccines outside of work. Murgo said there is no mandate in place in East Haven, and an accurate count of the number of employees with a COVID-19 vaccine doesn’t exist.
At the Naugatuck Police Department, no vaccine mandate is in effect, but a spokesman estimated between 60 percent and 70 percent of employees had taken a shot, based on voluntary reporting. That rate, while lower than Connecticut’s average, lines up with that of Naugatuck’s population.
Other departments cited privacy concerns.
“Unfortunately, we do not share medical data about our officers and other personnel,” said Bethel Capt. Heather Burnes in a statement.
Lt. Eddie Weihe of the Fairfield Police Department gave a similar stance for his office, stating “we are not releasing this type of employee health data at this time.”
In Guilford, Mitch Goldblatt, the town’s director of human resources, said a policy requiring either COVID-19 vaccines or tests for all employees will take effect Monday. According to his information current to Thursday, 84 percent of town police officers were vaccinated. Goldblatt said stakeholders including the local police union were on board with the new rule. But tracking down the health information for every employee has been an undertaking.
“Everyone pretty much bought in,” Goldblatt said. “It's just a matter of now putting the rubber to the road and making it happen.”
Close calls among colleagues who fell severely ill with COVID-19 jolted some hesitant law enforcement employees to get vaccinated in Danbury, said Lt. Matthew McNally, who has been leading an effort to get officers inoculated. Eighty percent of police department staff are vaccinated.
“We didn’t deal with the politics. We deal with the science,” McNally said.
The police department’s rate is better than the city’s, which is 75 percent among eligible residents. McNally noted a portion of those who hadn’t been vaccinated have also already been sick with COVID-19.
In both 2020 and 2021, COVID-19 was the leading cause of officer fatalities nationwide, ahead of firearm-related and trafficrelated deaths, according to a tally by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Across the country, at least 133 active-duty officers have died of COVID-19 between the beginning of this year through last Monday. The figure is on track to at least match last year’s total of 182 corona virus related deaths. The memorial recorded no deaths from COVID-19 among Connecticut law enforcement in 2020.
Pat Montuone, executive director of the memorial, said the organization doesn’t take a stance on vaccines or the personal health decisions of America’s officers. Montuone said every law enforcement officer who has passed away due to COVID-19 will be memorialized in the same way as those who died by any other cause.
“I pray for them every day, for those who choose not to get inoculated, that they are safe and that they use every precaution,” said Montuone, a retired police chief who is vaccinated himself.