Gates Police Chief James VanBrederode says state law needs to change, after one his officers has been left waiting for eight weeks to find out if his health has been put at risk by a bite from a suspect.
The officer was bitten by a woman named Kinshara Robinson during an altercation while she was being taken to jail on August 18th. She bit the officer on the right arm when he tried to calm her down, breaking the skin. Chief VanBrederode says eight weeks later, the courts still haven’t ordered a blood test for Robinson to determine if her bite put the officer at risk for HIV or hepatitis infection.
In the meantime, doctors decided the officer should go on retroviral therapy just in case. VanBrederode says that made him sick and caused him to be off work for weeks. He says if a dog bites you, the law calls for it to be quarantined and tested right away. But he says if you’re bitten by a human, you practically need an act of Congress to find out if you’re at risk.
The chief called for a change in the law to benefit all first responders who are at risk for human bites.