4 KCPD officers, 4 civilian employees have coronavirus; additional precautions taken
Four Kansas City police officers and four civilian employees have tested positive for the new coronavirus, Police Chief Rick Smith said Tuesday.
None of those affected have been hospitalized and all are recovering at home. Officials are waiting for the results from 12 coronavirus tests to be returned. Additionally, 65 other police academy cadets and academy instructors have been quarantined.
“We have put things into practice as best we can,” Smith said during the monthly meeting of the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners.
“We think we have done well for an organization of 2,000 people in this time,” he said.
Earlier this month, a patrol officer and a civilian employee tested positive for coronavirus.
The Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners held its monthly meeting by telephone conference instead of face to face. The meeting was broadcast on the police department’s Facebook page.
Smith said the cadets and the instructors were exposed during a recent training exercise.
Since then, police commanders have put in place a modified schedule where some classroom instruction is conducted online. Additional activities such as firearm training are done in person at the police academy.
One academy class has had its training and classroom sessions reduced by three weeks and police officials have had to postpone a graduation.
Every officer was issued surgical masks and encouraged to wear them. However, the police department has not made it a mandatory requirement, Smith said.
Patrol officers and radio dispatchers are being screened and have their temperatures taken before they enter police buildings, when they arrive to work and prior to starting their work assignments.
The police department is making its own hand sanitizer and distributing it to its officers and sharing it with other law enforcement agencies, Smith said.
“We continue to work through and adjust the best we can and try to keep things flowing in the department so that operations remain normal,”
In Kansas City, Kansas, one sworn officer, who works in an administrative, not public-facing, capacity and a civilian employee tested positive, said police spokeswoman Nancy Chartrand.
The officer has been out for nearly four weeks with no complications, and has been cleared by his physician to return to work this week. The civilian employee who tested positive has been out for three weeks, but is doing well and has had no complications, Chartrand said.
“We continue to work closely with the Wyandotte County Health Department to insure that we are following the latest recommendations for helping stop the spread of COVID-19 as we continue to serve the Kansas City, Kansas community,” she said.
Kansas City’s stay at home order went into effect March 24. Since then, the police department has to adjust how officers respond to emergency calls.
Some calls, such as property crimes, may be handled over the phone. Officers will ask individuals to remain six feet back, and when responding to a residence they may ask the individual to step outside rather than have the officer go inside.
An additional emphasis has been placed on traffic enforcement and pulling over speeding motorists. Officers have stopped several motorists who were reportedly driving over 100 mph, he said.
“We believe that because there has not been that much traffic on the freeways,” Smith said. “We believe that we need to continue these enforcements.”
On Monday, Smith wrote in a blog that most violent crime is unchanged; the number of property crimes are down. Domestic violence is up.
Since March 24, the number of 911 calls for domestic violence is up 22% compared to the same time last year, he said.
In addition, 911 calls dropped 2% from a year ago.
The number of assaults both with and without a weapon are down from the previous month. There also have been reductions in the number of reported rapes and robbery, Smith said.
This story was originally published April 14, 2020 at 2:06 PM.
