Concerns about COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy among Law Enforcement Officers: Prevalence and Risk Factor Data from a Nationally Representative Sample in the United States

Scant research exists on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among law enforcement officers, hindering health messaging development for officers and, by extension, the communities they serve. This paper's goal was to address this gap by providing the necessary data to better under hesitancy to guide training and policy interventions for officers. The objective was to conduct the first nationally representative survey of officers on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and its correlates. We collected data from February 2021 to March 2022 on officer COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and examined their responses in terms of sociodemographic factors, health status, and job characteristics. We found that 40% of officers were COVID-19 vaccine hesitant. We found that officers with higher education, older officers, officers with more law enforcement experience, officers who received recent health checkups, and commanders (compared to line officers) were less likely to be COVID-19 vaccine hesitant. Critically, officers working in law enforcement agencies that provided masks for COVID-19 protection were less likely to be COVID-19 vaccine hesitant (compared to agencies not providing masks). Ongoing research is needed to understand how evolving attitudes and barriers toward vaccination change over time for officers and to test messaging to better align officers with health guidelines.

Automated summary

There is a lack of research on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among law enforcement officers, which hinders the development of health messaging for both officers and the communities they serve. This study aimed to address this gap by conducting the first nationally representative survey of officers on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. The findings revealed that 40% of officers were hesitant towards the COVID-19 vaccine, with factors such as education, age, experience, health checkups, and agency policies influencing their hesitancy.