In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe prompting stay-at-home orders for all but the most essential workers in society. Policing was one of the professions that is essential for community safety, regardless of the circumstances. Officers were on the front-line of the COVID-19 public health crisis and their preparedness was crucial for officer and community health. During the onset of the pandemic little was known about how officers perceived the virus and how police agencies prepared officers to work in a highly contagious environment. This study used semistructured interviews of police officers in two states in the United States that had elevated cases of the virus. The authors explored the lived experiences of police officers to explore officers’ perceptions, concerns, implications the pandemic had on patrol activity, and agency preparedness during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results revealed structural and cultural forces that resulted in officers and their agency leadership not taking the pandemic seriously, ill-preparation and ill-equipping, and disincentives in reporting exposure. Moreover, officers’ fears were largely not based on their own well-being, but on the risk of spreading the disease to their family members.

2020 年春季，COVID-19 大流行在全球蔓延，促使除了社会上最重要的工人之外的所有人都下达了居家令。无论情况如何，警察都是对社区安全至关重要的职业之一。官员们处于 COVID-19 公共卫生危机的第一线，他们的准备工作对官员和社区健康至关重要。在大流行开始期间，人们对警察如何看待这种病毒以及警察机构如何让警察做好在高度传染性环境中工作的准备工作知之甚少。这项研究对美国两个新冠病毒病例增加的州的警察进行了半结构化访谈。作者探索了警官的生活经历，以探讨警官的看法、担忧、在 COVID-19 大流行开始期间，大流行对巡逻活动和机构准备工作的影响。结果揭示了结构和文化因素，导致官员及其机构领导层不认真对待这一流行病，准备不足和装备不足，并抑制了报告曝光的积极性。此外，官员们的恐惧主要不是基于他们自己的福祉，而是基于将疾病传播给家人的风险。