Virus’s Toll on N.Y. Police: 1 in 6 Officers Is Out Sick   

“It’s a worst-case scenario across the board,” one sergeant said. The virus has strained the Police Department even as it has been asked to help enforce rules to slow its spread.

One out of every six New York City police officers is out sick or in quarantine. A veteran detective and seven civilian workers have died from the disease caused by the coronavirus. And two chiefs and the deputy commissioner in charge of counterterrorism are among more than 1,500 others in the department who have been infected.

With weeks to go before the epidemic is expected to peak, the virus has already strained the Police Department at a time when its 36,000 officers have been asked to step up and help fight it by enforcing emergency rules intended to slow its spread.

The epidemic has also added a new level of risk and anxiety to police work, even as reports of most serious crimes have dropped steeply since the city imposed the new rules. Every arrest or interview now carries the potential for infection, officers say.

Police departments across the country are facing similar challenges. In Detroit, for instance, a fifth of the police force is quarantined, and the chief of police is one of about 40 officers infected. But the magnitude of the crisis for police in New York dwarfs the dozens of cases reported in other big-city police departments and sheriffs offices, like those in Houston and Los Angeles.

On Thursday, 6,498 New York officers called in sick — about 18 percent of the force — with most of them reporting flulike symptoms. The numbers have been steadily climbing for about three weeks, Mr. Shea said. The department’s weekly Compstat meetings, usually devoted to dissecting crime patterns, have been usurped by daily meetings to address the pandemic, he said.

In Manhattan, a third of the officers in two precincts — the 30th in Harlem and the 33rd in Washington Heights — were out sick this week. So were dozens of officers from the 43rd Precinct in the Bronx, one that has some of the city’s highest crime rates.

Police commanders in New York have begun taking pages from disaster plans designed for blackouts, hurricanes and terror attacks, and officials are making revisions by the hour. “There’s no blueprint,” said a sergeant who tested positive for Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. “It’s a worst-case scenario across the board.”

The plight of the department has reached Washington. The White House, responding to what an official described on Thursday as an “urgent S.O.S.” from the Police Department, arranged shipments of 4,000 Tyvek suits for homicide detectives processing suspected Covid-19 deaths and 6,000 gallons of hand sanitizer.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has promised to send state police, if necessary, to fill in for sick officers, but Commissioner Shea has declined the offer for now. He has also said he does not see a need, yet, to ask officers to work 12-hour tours to cover staff shortages.

While paramedics were responding to a record surge in emergency calls, Commissioner Shea said the calls funneled to police were down. There have also been no parades or large gatherings.

Since the city imposed emergency rules, reports of the seven most serious crimes — including rape, robbery and assault — have dropped to about 187 a day, compared with about 267 a day in the 11 days before the rules went into effect. “Nobody’s on street and that’s really helping us,” Mr. Shea has said. nytimes.com

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