LAPD Coronavirus Cases Triple; Third Largest City Police Force In USA Still Behind NYPD Infections

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With more than 536 confirmed cases of the coronavirus currently in Los Angeles County, the LAPD has seen a big jump in infections in recent days.

Reporting a trio of cases as recently as March 21, the department just now revealed that now nine members of its staff have tested positive for COVID-19. With two of the cases coming from the upper ranks of the Chief Michael Moore-run department, the occurrences breakdown to eight sworn members of the force and one civilian.

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“All of these individuals are now quarantined at home and recovering,” said a LAPD spokesperson in a statement on Monday evening. “The Department has strict protocols for any employee who experiences symptoms of the virus,” the statement added.” They are instructed to go home and their workspaces are sanitized.”

“The health and safety of our men and women continue to be our top priority and we will make every effort to test individuals experiencing symptoms.”

While nowhere near yet the triple digit numbers that the NYPD are suffering from the pandemic, the LAPD is one of the hardest hit police departments in the country so far. Staffed with nearly 10,000 officers and a civilian staff of around 3,000, the LAPD is the third largest municipal cop shop in America after New York City and Chicago.

Set to expand their testing if needed and to receive more masks for frontline officers, the LAPD are also under rick of a police shortage emerging as consequences of the novel coronavirus continue over the coming months and hiring has been “significantly impacted.”

“We need to hire 500 personal this year, sworn personnel, men and women of the organization, Chief Moore stated in an interview today. “And this stop right now, it gives me a significant amount of concern relative to the consequences three, six, nine months from now as we have people retiring from the organization and we are unable to hire new individuals.”

There’s more from Chief Moore on COVID-19 and the LAPD, as you can see in the video below:

So far, with the city, county and state in various degrees of lockdown, there have been seven deaths in the City of Angels from the coronavirus, so far. There are nearly 44,000 cases across the entire nation with 557 deaths as of this evening.

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