Justin Feldman, a social epidemiologist, tells me that 60 million people report an interaction with the police annually. Paired with the news that only a small portion of law enforcement officers have been vaccinated against COVID-19, it’s a number that puts the subject of policing as a public health issue into perspective—one more example of the various dangerspolice pose to communities. The Washington Post contacted 40 police departments nationwide, and of those, only five reported vaccination rates higher than the general public. Reasons as to why cops aren’t getting vaccinated are as murky as they are in the general population. It could be a matter of hesitancy or of access. The New York Post reported that NYPD officers aren’t getting vaccinated because they want the one shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine instead of going back for a second dose. Or it could be policy. Departments aren’t declaring vaccination mandates, which is a complicated process, and powerful police unions are upholding it as a private personal matter. In places like D.C., it’s possible that an officer got vaccinated in a nearby jurisdiction. The Washington Post analysis also discovered that some large departments—like Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Houston—aren’t tracking how many officers were receiving vaccinations. (The Post notes that in some cases the rates are reflective of broader vaccination rates in the department’s county.)