As everyone continues to adapt to the current reality due to COVID-19, Burnaby RCMP wants members of our community to know of some differences that may take place when our officers respond to calls for service.
More questions
If you need to make an emergency call to 9-1-1, depending on the urgency of the call, the call taker may go through some questions with you to determine if there is any potential risk to the responding police officers.
These questions will be focused on whether anyone in your home has been diagnosed with COVID-19 or is showing symptoms of COVID-19. We ask that members of our community listen closely and provide accurate answers to these questions. A risk of exposure to COVID-19 will not stop our police officers attending priority calls in our City, these questions allow them to prepare appropriately to keep themselves safe and to allow them to continue doing their essential work in the City.
Once at scene and depending on the urgency of the situation, our police officers will run through similar questions again. Has anyone been diagnosed with COVID-19? Does anyone have symptoms? Has anyone been out of the country in the past 14-days and self-isolating? Again, these questions will not stop police from dealing with the incident you are calling about, they exist to ensure their safety.
Protective equipment
Depending on the situation that our police officers are attending, they may wear protective equipment including a mask and goggles, similar to what is shown below.
We know that this may appear alarming, but please understand that this measure is taken in order to ensure our officers safety. For those who witness our police officers responding to calls for service wearing this protective equipment, all our officers are doing is limiting any potential exposure they may have to COVID-19. It does not mean the call for service was related to COVID-19 or that anyone has been diagnosed with COVID-19.
In order to keep the City of Burnaby safe, we need to keep our frontline officers health