Waterloo Regional Police Chief Bryan Larkin says that local criminals are attempting to use COVID-19 to evade arrest. “It’s become a bit of a playbook where individuals that we’re dealing with or are about to arrest suddenly have all the symptoms and/or have self-diagnosed themselves with COVID,” he said. “I think it’s become a bit of an arrest strategy.” That strategy, he told members of the media Monday, includes telling Waterloo officers that they are “contaminated”, thinking the officers won’t take action.
Waterloo’s top cop says that officers will then don personal protective equipment and complete the arrest before transporting suspects to central booking. “They still arrest,” he explained. “And then we come in, they screen and quite