Despite challenges brought on by the Omicron COVID variant, the Guelph Police Service has managed to maintain adequate staffing levels.
During the Guelph Police Services Board meeting on Thursday, Guelph Police Service Chief Gord Cobey hinted at some impacts the GPS has had due to COVID-19.
While some staffers have been impacted by illness or quarantine regulations, the GPS has maintained adequate staffing levels to ensure community safety in upheld, Cobey said.
“As I’m sure the board and the community can imagine, the service was impacted by a number of staffing challenges in the last month, however, on behalf of the service I want to provide community assurances that the contingency plans in place to ensure appropriate staffing levels are quite effective while we’ve navigated through quite a number of isolations through close contacts or illness-related issues,” said Cobey.
He noted the flexibility from staff members and the plans in place have allowed for resourcing and deployment levels to stay effective across the community.
“It’s been a challenging four to six weeks, but our members are deployed through the city as they normally would be,” said Cobey
Scott Tracey, media relations coordinator with the Guelph Police Service said the Guelph Police Service, like other organizations, has been dealing with member absences related to COVID-19 and the recent rapid spread of the Omicron variant.
“We have members both from our police and civilian staff who are currently following public health isolation guidelines and are not attending the workplace,” said Tracey.
“All possible steps are being taken to continue to deliver a high level of service while mitigating the spread of the virus. To date, staffing issues related to COVID-19 precautions have not had an impact on operations due to these contingency plans.”
