TEXAS — COVID-19 is currently the leading cause of death for law enforcement in the U.S. Numbers from the National Law Enforcement Officer’s Memorial Fund show that from January to June of 2020 76 of the 155 nationwide line-of-duty deaths were a result of the virus.
Here is Texas, statewide data shows there have been hundreds of police officer COVID deaths, with a major spike in the last few months in Central Texas. Since August, there have been at least five officer or deputy deaths because of COVID in the region.
“There’s not a week gone by that we haven’t been involved in a funeral,” said Rick Randall with the Austin Police Department.
After 25 years on the force, Randall has made a few friends. As an APD chaplain his job is to console and council his coworkers, and he says there’s been a whole lot of that recently.
“It’s just overwhelming the amount of grief that people are experiencing. It feels like there’s no end to the sorrow,” Randall said.
Randall was friends with Senior Sgt. Steve Urias and Officer Randy Boyd, both of whom succumbed to the virus. He spoke at their funerals.
“We’ve never had a time in all the years I’ve been associated with policing where we’ve had so many deaths in such a short span of time,” he said.
Randall is also the Health and Wellness Division director. He estimates between 60-70% of officers are now vaccinated. Vaccinations are not required at APD.
“We’re doing everything we can to impress on our people to wear masks and get vaccinated. What we haven’t done is we haven’t penalized people who aren’t doing those things,” he said.
The Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas reports more than 145 COVID officer deaths since 2020. Executive Director Charley Wilkison says COVID is the number one cause of death for officers in Texas.
“This will be the largest number of deaths in law enforcement in the history of Texas,” he said.
While he says vaccination rates are a major factor now, many of these deaths occurred because law enforcement lacked PPE last year and weren’t included on the priority list for the first round of vaccinations. CLEAT fought for legislation that is now law to make COVID a preemptive illness and provide benefits for public safety employees who get COVID on duty.
“[We are] working so hard to protect those families that have suffered this massive loss,” Wilkison said.
Randall says APD will now require COVID tests once a week for frontline officers and that more officers are now inquiring about vaccination. In addition, he says a majority of the most recent cadet class choose to get vaccinated at a higher percentage than the general population.
“If in their [APD officers] passing we get people [who] are motivated to take care of themselves and get vaccinated, that’s bringing something good after something very bad,” Randall said.