Unvaccinated SFPD employees have been placed on leave due to city mandate
File Photo. A row of San Francisco police patrol cars (Duncan Sinfield/KTVU).
SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco Police Department has released its latest data on COVID vaccine rates and while the number of sworn and unsworn officers compliant with the city's mandate exceeds 97%, all those who are unvaccinated have been placed on leave as of Tuesday.
The non-compliant employees placed on leave face proceedings to release them from employment, according to an SFPD statement.
The final deadline for all city workers to show proof of their vaccination status came on Monday, Nov. 1. First responders, or those city workers in positions at high-risk of COVID exposure, had until mid-October to vaccinate or risk separation from their jobs.
SFPD says 41 sworn officers report being unvaccinated and another 13 sworn officers report being partially vaccinated, meaning they've only had one dose of the two-shot Pfizer or Moderna regimen. They note the final dose had to be administered at least two weeks ahead of the deadline.
In addition, 10 non-sworn members report being unvaccinated; four non-sworn members report being partially vaccinated; and two non-sworn members have not entered their records.
The police department points out that they have surpassed the city's overall vaccine mandate compliance, which is at 76%.
In September, Chief Bill Scott initiated a redeployment plan as the department was headed toward uncertainty. The chief at that time was planning on pulling 10 sergeants and 31 officers from their regular duties to put them on patrol.
Chief Scott's plan would "assure that we continue to fulfill our core functions of patrol, investigations and public safety," he said. He went further and acknowledged that several major police departments saw its officers become infected with COVID-19 at the onset of the pandemic.
The department is considering further redeployments in the days to come to ensure operations continue to run smoothly.