KEARNEY, Neb. – (KGFW) Kearney Police Chief and the rest of the Kearney Police Department have been doing their job a little differently this year due to COVID-19 but that doesn’t mean that officers aren’t ready to protect and serve.
“We’ve taken additional steps to ensure that we can maintain operational readiness and that is very important for me and our staff to make sure we stay healthy to continue providing services here in Kearney. If I have employees and officers that come down with the virus, they’re not going to be able to police this city and that is the ultimate goal.”
It has been a “knock on wood” situation with officers as they have been staying healthy and able to fulfill their duties.
“We’ve had a few instances where we have had to have people off for a while based on a potential exposure during the job. It’s going to happen because policing is a dynamic job. There are times where you don’t have the opportunity to take preventative steps because of the nature of the call. We have not been impacted adversely at this point in time. We’ve been able to staff patrol shifts, investigations unit, our records unit. Everything that has made the wheels go round at the department have continued to operate.”
If you haven’t interacted with an officer over the past several months, they have adapted to the threat of COVID-19.
“Policing looks a lot different than it did prior to the pandemic. We’re still doing the job but we’re taking extra measures. If someone were to call 911 today, our dispatchers will ask a few questions from the caller. Whether they’re under quarantine or isolated, if they’re experiencing symptoms of COVID-19. We’ll take that information and decide whether or not we can take that call from the front porch or the front yard or maybe the officer can give a phone call to the report if it’s not an emergency situation. All of those are steps that we have in place.”
Chief Waugh appreciates the great relationship that Kearney Police has with the community as it makes their jobs easier.