As the protests in Ottawa around COVID-19 public health measures and vaccine mandates continue, the topic is once again drawing lots of discussion.
Speaking on AM800's the Morning Drive, Windsor Police Service Deputy Chief Jason Bellaire was asked whether the local mandates have had a significant impact on staffing.
Bellaire says it hasn't, as they only have less than two per cent of their workforce out of the work force for refusing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
"Really the only reallocation of resources internally to sort of protect our operational continuity in the event we had a COVID outbreak at work, but there's really no significant impact."
While there may have been some concerns from the general public on the potential impact, Bellaire says they've been able to manage without problems.
"It was a topic of discussion, and the people who are out of the work place are valued members of our organization. We want them back, we want to figure out how to get them back to work, but the true number of our full membership is a very low number so we're able to continue giving all of the services without really any significant impact," he said.
In terms of COVID-19 policies and enforcement, Bellaire says police haven't been overly involved as any complaints or issues were handled by bylaw enforcement.
But they did have impact on their resources, as they had to divert some of the resources they would've preferred to use for things like crime strategies.
"We had to divert those resources to deal with demonstrations, protests and things of that nature," he continued. "But as I said in the last Police Board Services meeting the calls for service regarding violations of the COVID legislation have really waned, it's not impactful anymore."
Back in October, the Windsor Police Services Board approved a policy which mandated proof of vaccination and those who failed to meet the deadline were placed on unpaid leave.
- with files from AM800's the Morning Drive