Seven Denver police officers sue city over vaccine mandate as deadline looms

Seven Denver police officers are suing the mayor and the city’s health department, alleging the city’s employee vaccine mandate is illegal and asking a judge to end it.

The lawsuit challenges Denver’s authority to issue a vaccine mandate and claims the city used “executive overreach to decree an edict of unlawful rules couched as an order.”

The officers filed the suit Thursday against Mayor Michael Hancock, the Department of Public Health and Environment and its executive director agency Robert McDonald, and Denver police Chief Paul Pazen.

“With caution thrown to the winds, everyone — the young and healthy, the old, the previously recovered and naturally immune, even pregnant and breastfeeding women — is currently being pressured by governments, businesses and educational institutions to submit to a COVID inoculation with no assessment of the risks or benefits for each individual or any consideration of medical necessity or contraindication in each particular case,” according to the lawsuit, which was first reported by CBS Denver.

The filing asks a Denver District Court judge to nullify the city’s vaccine mandate. A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday morning.

The officers, whose tenures with the department range from 2 to 21 years, state that they are “on the edge of unemployment” because of the mandate.

Representatives from the mayor’s office and the city attorney’s office declined to comment on the specifics of the lawsuit. Mike Strott, a spokesman for Hancock, said the administration is proud of how city employees have stepped up to “keep themselves, their co-workers and their community safe and healthy.”

“We’re doing what is necessary to save lives,” he said in an email.

All city employees are required to submit proof of vaccination by Thursday. Mayor Michael Hancock on Aug. 2 implemented the mandate for all city employees to be vaccinated as the fast-spreading delta variant caused a rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations across the country and in Colorado.

As of Friday, 82% of Denver Police Department staff and 78% of Denver Sheriff Department staff had presented proof of vaccination, city data shows. The Denver Fire Department, also a part of the Department of Public Safety, has a much higher vaccination rate of 92%.

Overall, 92% of Denver’s city employees have submitted proof.

The police and sheriff vaccination rates are higher than the citywide and statewide rates, however. Seventy percent of eligible Coloradans have been fully vaccinated and 75% of Denver residents, according to city and state health departments.

The Department of Public Safety created contingency staffing plans should large numbers of employees leave due to the vaccine mandate, but Public Safety Executive Director Murphy Robinson said in an interview that he didn’t expect to have to implement those plans.

Robinson said he is proud of public safety employees who he said have stepped up to mitigate COVID-19 by getting vaccinated. He said he’s had dozens of meetings with staff members to help answer questions about the vaccine and address concerns.

As of Thursday, 10 employees from the Department of Public Safety — four Denver sheriff employees and six Denver police employees — had notified their employer that they were resigning or retiring because of the vaccine mandate, said Andrea Webber, records administrator at the Department of Public Safety. The 10 retirements or resignations include both sworn and civilian employees.

Both the sheriff and police departments already were experiencing a shortage of workers.

Two hundred of the Denver Sheriff Department’s 874 positions are open, Denver Sheriff Elias Diggins told the City Council during a budget presentation this week. The shortage has forced the department to implement mandated overtime.

Pazen told the council during a budget presentation that were 67 vacancies in the 1,596-officer department. He said that the department has seen a higher level of resignations and retirements so far this year. As of Sept. 15, 99 officers have left this year and Pazen estimated that at least 30 more would leave by the end of 2021. Seventy-eight officers left in 2020.

Pazen said the shortage of officers was caused by one factor: the city budget cuts that followed the COVID-19 pandemic that forced the department to cancel academy classes.

“This was caused by one thing and one thing only — the economic crisis triggered by the global pandemic,” Pazen said.

The department has not had problems recruiting new officers this year, Pazen said.

Source: Read Full Article