Almost 25 percent of New York City police officers could be placed on unpaid leave after a judge on Wednesday denied a police union's request to block the COVID vaccine mandate from going into effect.
Police officers in the city have until Friday to receive at least one dose of the vaccine after the ruling by State Island judge Lizette Colon.
On Monday the Police Benevolent Association (PBA) filed a request for a temporary restraining order asking the Staten Island supreme court to ban the city and the NYPD from implementing the vaccine mandate until the union's lawsuit is processed.
Colon on Wednesday also ordered city officials to appear in court on November 12 to defend the vaccine mandate against the union's lawsuit, the Associated Press reported.
The PBA filed the lawsuit this week to reverse the COVID vaccine mandate that was announced last week, requiring all city workers to receive at least one dose of the vaccine by Friday.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said this month that regular testing for COVID will no longer be an option and that all city workers, including police officers, have until October 29 to get at least the first dose of the COVID vaccine.
New York City Law Department spokesperson Nicholas Paolucci said on Wednesday that the department is "pleased" with Colon's rule and that the mandate is on "solid" legal ground, according to the Daily News.
"The city's vaccine mandates make our workplaces safer, further public health and aid the city's recovery," Paolucci said.
Newsweek contacted the PBA and NYC Law Department for comments but didn't hear back in time for publication.
In the lawsuit, the PBA had argued that requiring police officers to test for COVID on a weekly basis was enough to protect against the virus.
"Today's ruling sets the city up for a real crisis. The haphazard rollout of this mandate has created chaos in the NYPD. City Hall has given no reason that a vaccine mandate with a weekly testing option is no longer enough to protect police officers and the public, especially while the number of COVID-19 cases continues to fall," said PBA's president Patrick Lynch in a statement on Wednesday.
"Instead, police officers are being told to make a possibly life-changing decision in a matter of days to meet a completely arbitrary deadline, while the NYPD's leadership spins its wheels and offers no guidance," Lynch added.
The PBA said that it will appeal the court's decision of denying the request for a restraining order.
"This not only violates police officers' rights—it will inevitably result in fewer cops available to protect our city. The PBA will continue to fight the fight and will immediately appeal this ruling, but New Yorkers should know who to blame for any shortfall in city services: Mayor Bill de Blasio, Police Commissioner [Dermot] Shea and the other bureaucrats who are putting politics before public health and public safety," Lynch said.
On Tuesday, Shea said that 72 percent of the NYPD has received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine. He added that the department is ready to place officers who don't comply on unpaid leave.
"We have to prepare as if this is going to go into effect Friday evening and that's exactly what we're going to do," Shea said on NY1, according to the New York Daily News. "We have vaccines available throughout the city for our members."
"Anyone at this point in time, unless something changes, will be put into a leave-without-pay status," Shea said this week, according to the Daily News. "What I would urge is for people not to wait to the last moment to see what happens with the lawsuit or anything else. Get the vaccine."
Thousands of emergency workers protested against the city's vaccine mandate this week including police officers, firefighters, and workers from the city's sanitation department.
About the writer
Fatma Khaled is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in New York City. Her focus is reporting on U.S. politics, world ... Read more
