LAPD Fires Unvaccinated Officers; Councilman Seeks To End Mandate

LOS ANGELES, CA — Even as the city leaders consider repealing the LA's employee COVID-19 vaccine mandate, three Los Angeles Police Department employees have been fired for violating the mandate and seven more are facing termination, the department announced Tuesday.

The fired employees failed to get vaccinated or receive a religious or medical exemption, LAPD Assistant Chief Dominic Choi told the Police Commission Tuesday. In all, 13 officers and one civillian employee have been found to be out of compliance with the mandate, Choi added.

Much like the Los Angeles Unified School District, LAPD's leadership has strictly adhered to the city's vaccine mandate, which requires all employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or receieve an exemption in religious or medical grounds.

The stance has led to a much higher vaccination rate in the LAPD than in the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, which has refused to enforce the county's vaccine mandate.

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About 83% of the LAPD is fully vaccinated, 0.4% is partially vaccinated and 16.2% is not vaccinated. More than 2,000 exemptions are pending. Medical exemptions are available to people who tested positive for COVID-19 recently, as those individuals get a 90-day exemption.

However, there is a chance the mandate may not be in place for much longer.

City Councilman Joe Buscaino, who is running for mayor, on Friday called for the city's employee vaccination mandate to be repealed, saying he believes "it should be a matter of personal choice and that we should respect our employees' civil liberties and allow them to make their own personal medical decisions."

It remains to be seen if the call would be heeded by fellow councilmembers.

The mandate for city employees to be vaccinated was approved by the City Council on Aug. 18. Employees were required to be inoculated against COVID- 19 by Dec. 18.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.