Police union to meet with Hinds on $1m for covid deaths

Members of the police union will meet with the Minister of National Security on Friday to discuss a proposal to pay $1 million to the families of police officers who contract covid19 on the job and die.

The meeting comes one day after the president of the Police Social and Welfare Association, Insp Gideon Dickson, made public the union's views on the issue, and after the deaths of three police officers from covid19 in the last two weeks.

Other arms of the protective services, such as members of the defence force, prison, fire are also keen on the proposal, as they too are frontline workers who could be exposed to the virus while on the job.

The facility to pay the families of officers $1 million in compensation if they are killed on the job came into effect in 2014, but back then covid19 was not a reality.

Police officers have been on the frontline since the outbreak of the pandemic in mid-March last year and close to a third of the workforce have been in quarantine since then.

The latest data from the union said there are 206 officers with the virus and 1,042 in quarantine awaiting results from contact tracing. There are 200 prison officers also in quarantine.