photo by: Mike Yoder

Lawrence police officers and trainees participate in a ceremony for the opening of the department's new headquarters at 5100 Overland Drive, Monday, Dec. 21, 2020.

In the face of lower vaccination rates among Lawrence police officers when compared to other local first responders, the city’s police union says it respects officers’ right not to get vaccinated.

As the Journal-World recently reported, though the City of Lawrence has seen a significant increase in the vaccination rates among employees since announcing a new testing and leave policy a month ago, numbers show there are notable differences among the vaccination rates of the community’s first responders.

The vaccination rate for Lawrence police is 71%, compared to 89% for the Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical department and 78% for Douglas County Sheriff’s Office employees, according to data the city and county previously provided the Journal-World. Overall, 85% of city employees and 84% of county employees are vaccinated.

Lawrence Police Officers Association leadership said the union was supportive of the city’s testing and leave policy for unvaccinated employees, but that it respected the choice not to get vaccinated.

“The Lawrence Police Officers Association (LPOA) is supportive of the city’s policy to test unvaccinated employees to keep everyone safe/well,” LPOA Chairman Kevin Henderson said in an email to the Journal-World. “We are very appreciative to the city for providing Covid leave to employees who are vaccinated, however we respect our (members’) right to choose whether or not to be vaccinated.”

Henderson did not provide a more specific response regarding what the LPOA was hearing from its members regarding vaccination that might explain why police have lower vaccination rates than other city employees; whether the LPOA has any concerns for unvaccinated officers or detectives; or whether the LPOA was comfortable with the risk to the public if roughly 30% of police and detectives are unvaccinated. Like all city employees, police department employees must continue wearing masks when in public indoor areas and areas where they cannot socially distance.

The city’s new policy was announced Sept. 18 and requires unvaccinated city employees to be tested weekly for the coronavirus. In addition, unvaccinated employees are not eligible to use the city’s COVID leave, which allows vaccinated city employees to not draw from their regular sick or vacation time if they become sick with COVID or have to quarantine, or if a family member becomes sick or has to quarantine.

The COVID leave policy started immediately upon the announcement, but the city is still waiting to begin weekly testing for its roughly 150 unvaccinated full-time employees.

When asked about the cost of the testing program, Shelby Patch, the city’s risk manager, said the city is working with Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to have testing completed through federally funded programs. Patch said if the federally funded programs the city has applied for are approved, they will completely cover the cost of the testing program. She said the city should know whether the programs have been approved in a few weeks.

Since the city announced the new policies about a month ago, the overall vaccination rate for city employees has increased from about 77% to about 85%. Patch said that while the city does not have specific data at this time for how much the police vaccination rate had increased in that time period, the rate has continued to improve for police as well as all other departments following the announcement.

“We are notified each week of employees getting their first shot or completing the vaccination process,” Patch said.

Douglas County began a weekly testing program for unvaccinated Sheriff’s Office employees about three weeks ago. On a national level, some police unions have strongly resisted vaccination or testing requirements, even though COVID-19 has been the No. 1 killer of law enforcement officers in 2020 and 2021, according to national media reports.