‘It's tough shit, basically, that you're all gonna get it': UK virus testing and police officer anxieties of contracting COVID-19

Abstract

Policing is a high-risk occupation that can cause a myriad of psychosocial problems to its workers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, officers have experienced increased rates of anxiety around contracting the virus, and these fears have been mirrored by their families, due to the largely unknown nature of the virus and mounting reports of police deaths across the world. Using data from 18 police officer interviews from a range of roles and forces in early summer 2020, this paper explores officer experiences of policing the pandemic, the emotional labour involved, and the detachment and displacement of anxiety and fear of working a global pandemic with little support from management.