Hampshire chief constable 'baffled' over police not being on Covid-19 vaccine priority list

THE county’s top police officer has said she is ‘baffled’ as to why her force is not on a priority list for Covid vaccines.
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Hampshire’s Olivia Pinkney made the comments at Hampshire Police Federation’s open meeting on Tuesday.

She said police chiefs want officers and other frontline workers vaccinated as a matter of priority.

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In comments reported by the federation, Mrs Pinkney said: ‘You can’t police from two metres... I am genuinely baffled as to why police officers and other frontline colleagues are not on the priority list.

Hampshire chief constable Olivia Pinkney. Picture: Sarah Standing (160563-482)Hampshire chief constable Olivia Pinkney. Picture: Sarah Standing (160563-482)
Hampshire chief constable Olivia Pinkney. Picture: Sarah Standing (160563-482)

‘I keep pushing for it. Martin Hewitt (the chair of the) National Police Chiefs’ Council is making the case.’

It comes as prisoners were set to be vaccinated before teachers and police – a move ditched by government on Thursday.

The murder trial of 49-year-old Mark Brandford convicted of killing Portsmouth woman Kayleigh Dunning, 32, had been delayed for several weeks due to a coronavirus outbreak in HMP Winchester.

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Zoe Wakefield, Hampshire Police Federation chair, said: ‘We did not expect to even be considered before NHS workers and the most vulnerable but for us to not be given the protection now is just wrong.

‘The government are not listening to numerous chief constables, police and crime commissioners or the Police Federation both nationally and locally.‘Or are they listening but they just don’t care about the risk officers are putting themselves in every day and how that risk transfers to vulnerable members of the public?

‘How long will it take for all 3,000 officers to be vaccinated? All that time the risks continue for both you, the public and your families.’

Hampshire Local Resilience Forum has set up a programme designed to save spare vaccine going to waste – allowing key responders access to jabs.

‘20,000 officers are not enough’

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Meanwhile, Ms Wakefield has said the government's 20,000 uplift in officers across the country is not enough.

She said: ‘The 20,000 officers promised by prime minister Boris Johnson are not enough - and the slice of that that we, in Hampshire have been allocated is not enough. It barely puts us back where we were prior to start of austerity.’

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