Nearly 30-year-old officer resigns COVID-19 vaccine tenure

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KPIX) – A veteran police officer in San Jose, Calif., Hangs up his badge on the requirement that all city employees be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Sgt. David Gutierrez has been a police officer for nearly 29 years, but he’s decided to end his long and successful law enforcement career with the San Jose Police Department during the city’s new vaccination tenure.

“First of all, it’s my religious belief. I also believe I was given the choice of what to do with my body, ”said Gutierrez.

Gutierrez spent years rising through the ranks, working as a homicide detective, internal affairs investigator and patrol supervisor, before retiring in 2019. He then returned to the force as a reserve officer.

He submitted his resignation letter before the city’s Sept. 30 deadline for employees to be fully immunized.

“I am not anti-vaccine. I don’t tell people, ‘You shouldn’t understand.’ But when it comes to my body, it’s my choice on what I want to put in my body, ”said Gutierrez.

Mayor Sam Liccardo says the vaccination policy is working. The police department’s vaccination rate has dropped from 82% to 85% since its announcement.

“It is certainly for the protection of the individual members of our municipal team. But it’s also, critically, for the safety of our entire community because we know, obviously, that first responders interact. [with the public] every day, ”Liccardo said.

The Police Association says there are around 150 police officers who are currently not vaccinated or have not disclosed their vaccination status to the city. Losing even a fraction of them would be a blow to a chronically understaffed department.

“If they let go of the police who have been here for five years, 10 years, 15 years, you can hire someone else, but you’re not going to hire that experience,” Gutierrez said.

Liccardo believes a large exodus of unvaccinated police workers is unlikely.

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