LAPD Fires Unvaccinated Officer With 7 More Terminations Pending

LOS ANGELES, CA — The Los Angeles Police Department fired one of its own Tuesday for failing to comply with the city's COVID-19 vaccine mandate, and several other officers face the same fate.

LAPD Assistant Chief Beatrice Girmala announced the disciplinary action Tuesday, noting that termination proceedings are underway for seven other officers. The city passed one of the nation's strictest employee vaccine mandates last year, and LAPD's leadership has spent months warning officers that they'll lose their job unless they comply with the mandate.

The LAPD's stance is a stark contrast to that of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department where the leadership announced there would be no enforcement of the county's employee vaccine mandate. As a result, the sheriff's department has a much lower vaccination rate, and, on Tuesday, the county Board of Supervisors voted to usurp the sheriff's disciplinary authority in order to begin disciplining deputies who fail to comply with the mandate.

The county's vaccine mandate already led to almost 500 employee terminations in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The vaccine mandates have triggered widespread outrage among people who contend they overstep the government's authority.

Among police officers, 10,216 LAPD employees, or 82.9% of the department, are fully vaccinated, a half-percent are partially vaccinated, and 16.6% are unvaccinated, Girmala told the Los Angeles Police Commission.

She added that 460 employees have filed for medical exemptions and 1,831 have filed for religious exemptions from the mandate.

One person who was not vaccinated was terminated after a board of rights process, and seven other terminations are pending, Girmala said.

The vaccination mandate was approved by the Los Angeles City Council and Mayor Eric Garcetti and passed on Aug. 18. All city employees were required to be fully vaccinated by Dec. 18 or apply for a religious or medical exemption, which is reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Exempted employees must submit to weekly testing at the city's expense.

Employees have five business days to file an appeal if their exemption is denied. If they do not appeal the decision, they are issued a notice that they must submit proof of vaccination. Failure to do so results in "corrective action."

According to the mandate, employees who do not comply are able to either resign or retire "all in good standing in lieu of discipline." Those employees are eligible to be rehired if they get vaccinated or if the vaccination order is lifted, according to the requirement.

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