Essay On Aids In Law Enforcement

The incidence of law enforcement officers contracting HIV/AIDS in the line of duty in the United States is often considered nonexistent, but a deeper look at some interplaying factors involved in this assessment points to a different conclusion. In order to gain insight on the effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s on law enforcement officers, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) surveyed every law enforcement agency in the United States about the occurrence and frequency of HIV infection resulting from occupational incidents (Bigbee, 1993). The FBI only inquired about the number of cases reported by law enforcement agencies and the context of the transmission event, in efforts to ensure complete confidentiality (Bigbee, 1993). This study uncovered seven instances in
While occurrences of occupational transmission may have met administrative and legal standards of proof over the years, the CDC requirements are much more stringent and difficult to establish. There are four conditions that must be met in order for the CDC to consider an infection as resulting from an on duty incident; the incident must involve a known means of transmission and it must be established that both the suspect who reportedly infected the officer was HIV positive at the time of the incident and that the officer did not already have HIV when the incident occurred (Hammett, 1992). The fourth condition is that there must be evidence that the infection occurred during an appropriate time frame making it plausible that the infection occurred as a result of the incident (Hammett,