'Stop testing NBA players, start testing first responders': US police chiefs demand Covid-19 testing for essential workers

‘If we’re quarantining our people for 14 days we’re going to lose our first responders’

A police chief in California has called out what many have said it class-based testing for coronavirus available to the rich and powerful while regular people experiencing symptoms – including first responders – are left without answers.

During a call hosted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police with the White House and Homeland Security officials, Vacaville police chief John Carli urged for more appropriate testing priorities as emergency and law enforcement organisations lose members to quarantine and self-isolation due to the virus.

“If we’re quarantining [our] people for 14 days...we’re going to lose our first responders. And we have to, at a national level, get the support down to the local level. Stop testing NBA players, and start testing our first responders,” Mr Carli said.

Mr Carli was referring to NBA players who were tested for the virus after it was discovered that Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert had tested positive for the virus. The discovery of Gobert’s infection and its potential for further spreading through the league resulted in the NBA suspending its season.

Mr Carli argued that measures had to start at the federal level so that local authorities didn’t have to rely on “backchannels” to get their people tested.

“I’m having to go to the medical staff and say ‘get my first responders tested,’” he said. “Somebody needs to make a decision at the very high level so that we’re not having to have these decisions made [this way].”

ABC News reported that other chiefs were concerned with privacy laws preventing officers from knowing the exact locations of individuals who have tested positive for the virus.

“We’ve already had a case where a [person with coronavirus] was out breaking the quarantine, driving around with just a mask on, in their car,” a New Jersey state police official said.

HIPAA, the privacy law in the US that protects patients rights, generally prevents anyone – including law enforcement – from having access to an individual’s medical history without their authorisation.

However, HIPAA regulation does allow for organisations covered under the law to provide law enforcement with an individual’s protected health information to “report to a law enforcement official reasonably able to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of an individual or the public”.

An official from North Carolina shared on the call how law enforcement agencies and health officials in his state created a secure system to help notify police when new instances of individuals testing positive for coronavirus occurred in their jurisdictions.

The system apparently gives police the information they need without widely sharing the names of the sick or entering them into the public record.

Dr Alex Eastman, of the Dallas Police Department, urged other law enforcement officials on the call not to overreact, citing instances of officers “clamouring” to be tested despite their risk of exposure actually being low.

Mr Eastman said that in his area one out of every 10 police officers had been potentially exposed to the virus in a capacity that required testing.

The call also revealed that policing priorities have changed, as police scale back traffic enforcement and arrests unless “necessary” and refocused on places like grocery stores, where occasional fights have broken out over hoarding scenarios.

“We really told our people not to do traffic enforcement at all,” said Bill Brooks, the police chief of Norwood, Massachusetts.

Mr Brooks noted that police will more often be required to enforce laws without the threat of arrest to effectively protect themselves and the public.

“We will be asked to enforce orders but not make physical arrests,” he said. “And it will come down to the amazing skills of cops to make that happen.”