#COVID19 Anniversary: It’s been a challenge like no other

IT’S been a year since the first Covid-19 lockdown came into force, and it’s been a challenge like no other, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

From early fears about the lack of PPE, catching the virus and potentially spreading it to their families to the sheer exhaustion of not getting the breaks they need, South Yorkshire Police Officers have been through it all.

At the start of the pandemic, many officers feared they might die, given they had to be out there mixing with the public so much, yet they’ve continued to protect their communities.

And with a summer of high demand on the way, lockdown won’t be easing for them until at least the autumn, South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent warned.

“It’s been a roller coaster,” he said.

“The frustration for officers throughout Covid is that they have been at the frontline of this, and they haven’t been able to let up, and they’ve been almost the lightning rod for public opinion about whether we’re dealing with stuff too harshly or too easily.

“They’re just a little bit fed up that they don’t get a break from it, and I think
that’s culminated in the last couple of weeks; it’s reached a crescendo.”

It was a very serious few months for officers as the full horror of the early pandemic became clear.

“Officers were scared, and I encouraged the force to get more understanding out there and more detail about the dangers of it,” Steve said.

“Officers literally thought they were going to die. I had messages from them saying that.

“Thankfully, we have seen deaths amongst officers at quite a low rate, and that’s in no way any disrespect to those officers who have passed away through COVID because it’s absolutely awful.

“But the things put in place have kept those deaths actually much lower comparatively than our colleagues in the NHS.

“For cops, the lockdown release is going to be postponed until autumn at the earliest because we’re not going to be able to do anything for that period of time.”

It’s a testament to officers’ determination and the work going on behind the scenes between the Federation and the force, which has seen South Yorkshire Police with one the lowest absenteeism rates throughout the pandemic, Steve said.

“As a Federation, we’ve tried to do our best, and there certainly has been loads of work going on behind the scenes nationally and locally.

“We have meetings all the time with the force, and we’re constantly working with them in the background.

“The force has done an amazing job and throughout this whole pandemic, we’ve had one of the lowest absence rates because of COVID-19.

“We’ve not been that far off normal levels throughout, give or take a few spikes, and that is testament to our officers in terms of the way they’ve been professional about PPE, and because they want to be here, they want to carry on looking after the people of South Yorkshire and their colleagues,” Steve added.

“So absolutely credit because it’s due.”