Essex Police Federation encourages officers to wear PPE to help send the right message to the public

18 August 2020

Essex Police officers following their Federation’s guidelines and using PPE on duty has helped to ‘send out the right message’ to the public.

Essex Police Federation Chair Laura Heggie said face coverings are being used by officers especially when they cannot keep to social distancing guidelines and when they are double crewing.

She says the Federation is fully behind the national Federation’s campaign to encourage officers to use PPE and keep themselves and others safe out on the streets.

Thankfully too, the force has been able to get their hands on enough kit to keep officers well supplied.

“Right from the beginning, as Essex Police Federation, we’ve been saying in our conversations with the force about seeing officers getting out of carriers and cars without wearing masks, what message was that sending the public?” Laura said.

“It didn’t reinforce how serious we’re telling the public it is.

“So, it is really important that officers comply with it, the same as we’re asking the public to, for the same reasons – we’re not immune to it, so we’re still putting ourselves at risk.

“Officers had become complacent, but that has had a bit of a turnaround. It’s a good thing the force made wearing PPE mandatory again and this got everyone thinking and got them to focus again,” Laura added.

“Otherwise I think we would have been losing numbers through sickness, which we haven’t done throughout COVID-19 so far – we’ve been really, really lucky.”

It’s important officers who may be returning to work having shielded at home for months also feel reassured that the proper steps are in place to protect them and their families, Laura said.

“We’ve gone past the end of shielding, and Essex Police aren’t asking officers that have been shielding to rush back into the organisation.

“There’s no push there at all, which is  good and is something we support. But other officers that have been at work throughout this need to be mindful that some of these people are quite scared to come back into the workplace.

“Speaking with colleagues who have been shielding for three months, they feel vulnerable, and they are nervous about coming back.We need to respect each other’s space.”