NSW Police splits cop teams to avoid COVID-19 infections

More than 1200 NSW Police officers will be taken off normal duties to enforce traveller quarantine at about 20 different hotels around Sydney from today, as stricter measures are put in place to ensure there are enough officers to carry the load if others contract COVID-19.

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They’re calling them the designated survivors – senior police officers being isolated to carry the load if their team is struck down in a COVID-19 outbreak.

Across the state, police bosses have gone to extraordinary lengths to make sure day-to-day crime doesn’t fall through the cracks and policing continues during the pandemic.

This is being juggled with the huge demand for police resources to enforce strict isolation rules.

The Sunday Telegraph has been told about more than 1200 officers will be taken off their normal roles and used to enforce traveller quarantine at about 20 different hotels around the city from Monday.

NSW Police officers patrolling Rushcutters Bay park this week. Picture: Joel Carrett

While there hasn’t been a case of COVID-19 among on-duty officers yet, it is understood there are at least 100 officers in isolation after travelling overseas or coming into close contact with someone diagnosed with coronavirus.

Two police officers tested positive to coronavirus last month after disembarking Royal Caribbean cruise ships but haven’t been into a police station since before their holidays.

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Preparing for the upheaval an outbreak would cause, sources confirmed many police commands split detective teams with some working in their usual office and others, tagged designated survivors, working in isolated, smaller stations.

If the investigation team is wiped out by COVID-19, isolated detectives can continue working on cases and responding to crime while their colleagues receive treatment.

At one regional station south of Sydney, six of 25 detectives were isolated from their office and working at a small suburban station with little outside contact.

An inspector said command leaders were being strategic and also separating senior staff to make sure they were working away from each other.

“Senior managers would spread out through the command when they might otherwise be based out of one main station,” he said.

Police at Little Bay speaking with people flouting social distancing laws. Picture: Matrix Media

At State Crime Command, home to the homicide, robbery and sex crimes squads, many detectives are also working off site and splitting night and day shifts, one source confirmed.

Some detectives have been asked to return to uniform to help enforce public health orders around the state, including knocking on doors to check people are self-isolating, and to guard hotels holding thousands of quarantined travellers.

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Tony Crandell. Picture: Jeremy Piper

“Most have already started operating on split staff so if one pod goes down they can still maintain operation commitments,” one officer said.

“Cops are having to leave specialist duties and put the uniform on to help out with COVID-19 response statewide.”

Even senior police, from superintendent level and above, have been pulled from their desks to work the beat.

The Sunday Telegraph understands Assistant Commissioner Tony Crandell recently worked a shift on the trucks — a police paddy wagon — in southwest Sydney recently to fill a staff shortage.

NSW Police Association president Tony King said detailed planning was happening because the virus posed “extreme risks” to frontline police.

“These are not ordinary days,” he said.

“They will continue to require extraordinary measures that no-one at the start of the year could ever have considered would be required.”

Originally published as NSW Police splits cop teams to avoid COVID-19 infections