Music Matters
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Nearly Half Of Bethel Police Are Unvaccinated And Live Out Of Town. They Could Lose Their Jobs.

Most city employees are vaccinated, but nearly half the police force is not.
Bethel Police Department
Most city employees are vaccinated, but nearly half the police force is not.
Most city employees are vaccinated, but nearly half the police force is not.
Credit Bethel Police Department
/
Bethel Police Department
Most city employees are vaccinated, but nearly half the police force is not.

The City of Bethel could soon lose nearly half its police force following a new vaccine mandate. The mandate, announced on Sept. 13, gives city employees two weeks to receive their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. The mandate takes effect Sept. 27. 

  

Only 16 out of the City of Bethel’s 105 employees are unvaccinated. That means that 84.7% of the city's employees are vaccinated, but nearly half the police force is not.

 

Six of seven unvaccinated Bethel Police officers don’t live in Bethel. Instead, the six unvaccinated officers fly in and out, working two weeks on, two weeks off. The city adopted this schedule after struggling to retain officers. The city currently has 16 officers.

The city’s human resources director, James Harris, said that two of the unvaccinated officers live in Wasilla, and the other four reside in the state of Georgia. Wasilla has some of thehighest rates of COVID-19transmission in the state. The Southeastern United States, where Georgia is located, has some of thehighest COVID-19 transmission ratesin the country. 

So why don’t the officers want to get vaccinated? KYUK's Olivia Ebertz spoke to the two who live in Wasilla. Officer Skyler Smith said that he opposes the vaccine on religious grounds. 

“I don’t want anything injected in my body,” said Smith. 

Smith would not specify his beliefs and would only identify himself as non-denominational Christian. Smith acknowledges the reality of the virus and has tested positive for COVID-19 in the past.He said that he will apply for a religious exemption. 

Investigator Vincent Garay, also of Wasilla, said that he doesn’t want to get the vaccine either. 

“I am severely, severely allergic to aspirin. I do not want to die,” said Garay.

None of the COVID-19 vaccines contain aspirin. TheCenters For Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) encourages vaccinations for people with allergies to oral medication. The CDC advises avoiding the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines only if you have a severe allergy to polyethylene glycol, an ingredient in the mRNA vaccines. Often if you have an allergy toone ingredient in one vaccine,another vaccine should be safe for you. 

The city is offering medical exemptions, which Garay plans to apply for. They must be signed by a medical doctor saying that the patient has a valid concern. Garay said that he’ll also apply for a religious exemption. 

“I am Catholic. We don't even believe in abortion and divorce. Or is it that Catholics are not allowed to have exemptions? Do you even know what's in the vaccine? I even heard that it has even aborted fetuses in it. That's against my religion if it has,” said Garay.

None of the COVID-19 vaccineshave aborted or other fetal cells in them, although there were decades old aborted fetal cell lines used in the production of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Two other COVID-19 vaccines, from companies Pfizer and Moderna, are offered in Bethel.

Harris, the city’s human resources director, said that all religious exemptions go through an internal review process to make sure that they are valid. If an employee says that they have an issue with a policy because of their religion, Harris checks the policy of their religion to make sure that it’s a religious belief, rather than an individual belief. Harris said that these procedures follow anti-discrimination laws.

So although Garay said that he can’t get the vaccine because of his Catholic faith, that won’t legally hold up in the city. Harris said that he called the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church on Sept. 15.

“I specifically asked, 'does the Catholic faith prohibit vaccination?' And the answer I got back immediately was ‘No, we do not; in fact, we encourage it,’” said Harris. 

And the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, hasurged everyoneto get vaccinated, calling vaccinations an "act of love." The pope also said that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is "morally acceptable" for Catholics. 

Both Garay and Smith say that they’ve been in touch with lawyers about this mandate. Smith said that he could be taking legal action. 

“If I am terminated, I could be pursuing a lawsuit against the city,” said Smith.

City Attorney Elizabeth "Libby" Bakalar said that the mandate is “legally sound and fully defensible.” The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta’s largest employer, the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation, also has a vaccine mandate. And the Biden administration has issued mandates for themilitary,federal workers, andlarge private businesses

If Garay, Smith, and the other unvaccinated Bethel police officers are all terminated when the vaccine mandate goes into effect, the police force will be cut almost in half. Harris said that it’s important to think about who Bethel will be losing if they are terminated.

“Persons who are unvaccinated who don't even live in Bethel, who are not from Bethel, who are commuting back and forth between the lower 48 every two weeks, traveling unvaccinated, and are interacting with this general public on the highest intensity that somebody could interact with the general public,” said Harris. 

The CDC says that unvaccinated people are aboutfive timesas likely to spread COVID-19 than vaccinated people. 

Chief of Police Richard Simmons said that he finds himself caught in the middle. He said that on the one hand, City Manager Pete Williams, who wrote and signed the mandate, is his boss, and he appreciates the security it offers. But on the other hand, he’s concerned about losing almost half his staff.Simmons himself is vaccinated.

“We understand living in one of the most violent communities in the nation that we need our police officers. So which one is the real threat that the police department is having to address?” asked Simmons.

Williams said that the city will pull out of this just fine. 

“We're always worried about not having enough officers. But you know, in the past we've been down to as short as five officers. I know that that means slower response time, and cases get handled a little bit more slowly, but we got by,” said Williams. 

On Sept. 17, the city is offering a class for employees to learn about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. It will be held at the Bethel Port Office at 1 p.m. Dr. Elizabeth Roll with YKHC will be there to answer questions.

Previously, this story said that the Bethel Police Force had 14 officers, and that all of the unvaccinated officers lived out of town. That is incorrect. After this story aired, The City of Bethel's Human Resources Director, James Harris, corrected the city’s count of Bethel Police Officers. The force has 16 officers, of which seven were unvaccinated. Six of those unvaccinated officers live out of town and one lives in Bethel.

Copyright 2021 KYUK

Olivia is a News Reporter for KYUK. She previously worked in the film industry in New York City. Her documentary films have screened at festivals worldwide. In 2020 she was an artist-in-residence in Petrozavodsk, Russia. She speaks English, Norwegian, Italian, Spanish, and Russian with decreasing fluency in that order.