The Manitoba First Nation Police Service is looking back on the COVID-19 pandemic.

When the pandemic first broke out over a year ago, the MFNPS took the strategy to become more visible and active within the community. Not only did they up patrols, but the organization made sure to open dialogue with community leaders, as well as make sure to give back to the community.

Acting chief Bruno Rossi says the force was relatively unscathed by the virus.

"Some of our communities have had the COVID-19 virus. I can say only one of our officers in the whole service had contact with the virus and ended up with it," says Rossi. "We isolated that person right away, and they got through it quickly, but now they're back to work, so it hasn't been too bad."

Officers had to learn a new style of policing, learn how to wear and maintain PPE, and keep their distance during calls. Rossi says it started slow, but their officers have started to get the vaccine.

"We weren't given the benefits of getting the vaccine right away. We had to wait like everybody else. We have, I would say 80 per cent of our service vaccinated thanks to the help of a lot of the First Nations," says Rossi. "Sometimes, there are leftover vaccinations that they don't want to throw away, so they'll call us, we'll go to the health centers, and we'll get the vaccine."

He says this has been a great relief, and officers now feel more confident doing their jobs with the added level of protection. One initiative Rossi has implemented within the force is making sure that officers get commended with medals for their exceptional work.

"With COVID-19, I think we were the only police service in Canada or even in in the world that had a COVID medal for our officers that fought the battle of Covid," says Rossi. "Now, we have a medal they can wear in remembrance of 2020 COVID. In 10 years, people will be going, 'what's that?' We'll say this was when we fought COVID."