Months after D.C.’s police force became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, officials are looking at ways to increase immunization rates among its officers.

Though MPD officers have been eligible for a vaccine since January, less than two-thirds of the District’s police force has been immunized so far.

According to data submitted to the D.C. Council in March, 2,045 of the department’s 3,641 officers — roughly 56% — had received a vaccine, or were scheduled to do so. During a press conference on Monday, May 3, D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee said that 58% of officers are now fully vaccinated, marking only about a 2% increase over a month’s period.

Contee said the figures were “not bad,” and noted that some officers who don’t live in D.C. may have opted to receive their vaccine in their home state, and are not required to report that to the department. As of March 2021, only 16% of D.C.’s police officers live in the District; 59% live in Maryland and 23% reside in Virginia.

“We want to see more people vaccinated obviously,” Contee said. “I’m just going to keep on encouraging the members of the Metropolitan Police Department to get to be fully vaccinated.”

In the report submitted to the Council, MPD said it had employed multiple internal strategies — like staff-wide emails from Contee and informational videos — to encourage officers and their families to get their vaccines. And during a call with D.C. councilmembers last week, city administrator Kevin Donahue said the vaccination rate of the city’s police department is still a “nascent issue.” He added that the force is using peer outreach campaigns to boost interest among officers who have not yet gotten vaccinated.

In a follow-up question during Friday’s call, At-Large Councilmember Elissa Silverman asked if the city was considering financial incentives for its frontline employees. Donahue responded that D.C. officials are researching similar types of incentives used in other jurisdictions and businesses — and weighing whether this could be one avenue for upping the department’s vaccine numbers.

“[W]e’re eager to understand a particular type of incentive, or if there’s incentives that message a certain way, that would motivate and change something,” he said.

But Donahue stopped short of pointing to a potential vaccine mandate for the city’s employees — a complex legal issue that public policy, legal, and labor experts are trying to disentangle as national vaccination rates slow and experts caution that herd immunity could be out of reach.

“’It’s certainly the belief of the legal staff that I have consulted with, that employers do have the legal authority to require the COVID vaccine,” Donahue said. “That’s not a decision that we’ve made at this point, we are focusing on using peer influencers within those communities of practice, among their coworkers, to encourage additional vaccinations.”

D.C. Health’s vaccination program head, Dr. Ankoor Shah, said the city doesn’t have a specific metric in mind to reach herd immunity, but instead will evaluate the city’s control of the virus on case and death counts. Still, frontline workers like police officers were given priority vaccine eligibility due the nature of their job — which requires frequently engaging with the public, potentially in a close-contact encounter. And as public-facing government workers, experts have argued that police officers opting out of or delaying receiving a coronavirus vaccine puts both themselves and the people they interact with at risk.

In its March submission to the Council, MPD reported that 685 officers had tested positive for COVID-19 over the past year — about 20% of all officers on the force — and 26 officers were disciplined for not complying with coronavirus safety procedures. (A DC ACLU report earlier this year alleged that officers skirted coronavirus precautions when conducting mass arrests during the summer protests against police brutality.)

Vaccination rates among D.C. police officers fall in line with a larger national trend — as does officials’ hesitancy to issue a vaccine mandate. According to The Washington Post, both small and large police forces’ immunization rates fall below the national average. While about half of all adults in the U.S. have received at least one dose of the vaccine, Ohio’s largest police department reports just 28% of its 1,870 officers have received at least one dose and just 39% of the more than 2,000 officers in Atlanta have received one dose. But of the 40 metropolitan police forces contacted by the Post in their report, none had instituted a vaccine mandate.

The head of the D.C. Police Union, Gregory Pemberton, did not respond to DCist’s request for comment on whether the union would oppose a vaccine mandate.

In the absence of a mandate, state and local leaders across the country have begun to dole out vaccine incentives, from free lunches to paid time off, in hopes of swaying constituents to get the shot.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) announced on Monday a “Shot and a Beer” program that would serve up a free local beer to residents with proof of vaccination. On Tuesday afternoon, D.C. followed suit, announcing its own get-a-shot-get-a-beer style promotion. And on Monday afternoon, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) announced that every government employee would be eligible to receive $100 dollars for getting a COVID-19 vaccine — and any subsequently approved boosters.

Pressed on whether D.C. would consider cash incentives for the force, Contee seemed reluctant at Monday’s press conference.

“I want them to be healthy and safe. That’s the incentive,” he said.