South Yorkshire police officers call for Covid jabs for frontline cops

The South Yorkshire branch of the Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, said it is ‘infuriating’ that those on the front line have no idea when they might be able to join the vaccination queue.

The Home Secretary recently suggested that police officers need to ‘get ready’ for the jabs, but to date there has been no confirmation given of where on the priority list officers will fall.

Chairman Steve Kent said officers are calling for the jab to enable them to perform their roles safely.

“It’s borderline infuriating because recently the sounds were coming out in the right direction, but we shouldn’t be at this stage, they should have already been rolled out for police officers,” he said.

“The NHS rightly have got the NHS vaccine as have care workers, but it grates on officers when we are going into people’s houses on a day to day basis and putting ourselves at risk in the same way social workers are and beyond that, and yet we’re still not officially in receipt of it.

“I’m getting contacted numerous times a day by officers who are concerned so I will continue to bang that drum as much as I possibly can.”

He added: “Unfortunately, I don’t have a magic wand to make the Government change its mind.

“We are seeing movement which is a positive, but we need to see firm dates and firm comments coming out, not just aspirational statements which is what we’re getting at the minute."