Over the past month, Ebola has dominated national headlines, stoking the fears of the public and leading to much misinformation when it comes to the disease.
Lt. Alexander Eastman, Deputy Medical Director of the Dallas Police Department and Lead Medical Officer of its SWAT Team, spoke to attendees Sunday at IACP 2014 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando Fla. about how his department has dealt with Ebola, and what other law enforcement agencies can do to be prepared.
The Ebola crisis in Dallas began when Thomas Eric Duncan, who traveled to the United States from Liberia, was treated at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital and died of the virus on Oct. 8. Two nurses who treated Duncan contracted the disease and were then transported to separate hospitals in different parts of the country. They are both expected to make full recoveries.
"As a law enforcement agency, we are dealing with a lot of challenges," Eastman, who was recently tasked with helping create a new North Texas biocontainment facility, said. "What's important to recognize is that officers out there are not physicians."
He said that one of the obstacles has been the misconceptions of how the disease is contracted.
"This is one of the hottest political topics. The amount of bad information you'll see out there is striking," he said. "Ebola is transmitted through contact with blood or bodily fluids. Routine public contact and routine police contact is at very low risk to contract Ebola."
Because of the nature of the disease, and the physical toll that it takes one's body, Eastman stressed that infected patients won't experience excited delirium and that officers are not at risk of attacks that can lead to them being infected.
"This is a disease that lays you out," he said. "You won't have someone with Ebola attack you."
Eastman said that communication with department personnel and the public is key. With fears abound, making sure everyone is properly educated about the disease can go a long way.
"You have to make sure your troops are aware of what the disease is and what it is not," he said, adding that it's very important to have some type of health care advisor ready to assist the department.
Officials first sent out a department-wide directive about Ebola, and then created an instructional video to show to its officers.
"You're going to be dealing with a lot of ignorance and you'll likely be managing more fear than infected persons," he said, noting that law enforcement agencies must control the message being sent out. "If this hits your area, you'll have a media circus."
Since the infection of the two nurses in Dallas was primarily attributed to the lack of proper Personal Protective Equipment, many police departments are now looking into purchasing PPEs.
Eastman said that police officials can't expect to just be able to outfit their officers with PPEs to solve the problem and that they'll likely be approached by numerous companies trying to sell them PPEs.
"None of this medical PPE is designed for us to function as law enforcement officers. None of it was constructed with officers in mind," he said. "It won't help them and won't protect them."
It's not feasible to expect officers to act health care providers, Eastman said, and that doing so will only more the situation appear more dire in the public's eyes.
"If you dress your guys up (in PPE) and send them into the community, there will be panic and pandemonium."
While Dallas Police Department hasn't outfitted its officers in PPE, it has taken certain steps to mitigate possible contact with infected patients by not handling transports and having Fire/Rescue personnel take over when needed.
While the crisis in Dallas is beginning to subside, officials in New York City are now hard at work to calm fears after a doctor who resides there was diagnosed with Ebola just last week.
