Last month it came to light that some forces were being offered spare Covid-19 vaccine doses as the Pfizer vaccine has a short shelf life and cannot be returned to storage once a batch is opened. 

While the Metropolitan Police were initally telling officers to turn down offers of vaccination, Northamptonshire saw an opportunity worth taking and began work to form a partnership which meant vaccines were not wasted. 

Northamptonshire’s chief constable Nick Adderley said they’d linked in closely with Northants director of public health, Lucy Wyman, and the chief executives of the local hospitals.

Now they are managing to vaccinate around two officers a day. He said the numbers had been small because the trust was doing a good job at distribution.

A total of 35 officers have now been vaccinated in this way.

“We will never want to jump in the queue” CC Adderley said. “We accept the risks that we face and we do that every single day.”

He said it was right that Martin Hewitt was pushing ministers on behalf of the National Police Chiefs’ Council on a national level, but locally a system had been set up.

The free mobility of officers, their 24/7 presence and the ease at which they can be contacted make them a logical target for shifting left-over doses quickly.

“It’s just really pragmatic,” said CC Adderley.

“Let's make it clear, we're not trying to push 70 and 80-year-olds out of the way because we think we're more important.

“The reality is if we lose all of our police officers through self-isolation, or God forbid, they catch the virus themselves, that really would restrict our ability to deliver the service and keep the public safe.”

John Apter, chairman of the Police Federation, tweeted on Monday (8 February):

Message for police officers - Aware that at very short notice, whilst on duty, you may be called up to receive spare vaccine. You will need your warrant card, usual Dr’s details and your NHS number so make sure you have it handy, just in case! Please share with your colleagues.

— John Apter (@PFEW_Chair) February 8, 2021

The force peaked at an abstraction rate of 10.1 per cent in the pandemic. As of today it’s down to 7.5 per cent and continues to fall. Northamptonshire is one of a number of forces trialling the Lateral Flow Tests which had a positive impact straight away and is continuing to bring abstraction rates down. 

In March last year the force set parameters of what levels of abstraction would make it necessary to move to a different level of service. They calculated it would be "in trouble" at around 18 to 19 per cent abstraction, and would have no choice but to revert back to an emergency level response by drawing numbers from other teams to the response function to be able to deal with emergency calls.