Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said he is ready to fire any of the department’s 12,000 employees who refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or get tested twice a week for the disease.

Moore’s stance contrasts with Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who recently went so far as to call a news conference to blast a similar vaccine mandate enacted by the county. The county sheriff predicted mass departures among his deputies as a result, a warning also made but not necessarily panning out by police union officials in Pittsburgh and Chicago.

According to the report by CBS News, the LAPD’s goal of having a fully vaccinated workforce is to ensure the safety and welfare of the department’s officers, civilian workforce, their families and the public, Moore told CBS MoneyWatch.

The LAPD on November 4 began having commanding officers personally delivering notices to 3,500 unvaccinated employees – including 2,239 who had requested an exemption – informing them of the requirements. The approach involves a “one-on-one conversation that was respectful,” said Moore, who expressed a desire to “turn down the volume” on the national debate taking place over vaccine mandates.

So far, the LAPD policy appears to be working. More than 60% of the unvaccinated employees have been officially notified one-on-one of the COVID-19 rules, and as of early Monday all but four had agreed to get vaccinated or request an exemption, Moore said.

Those four were sent home pending disciplinary hearings, with formal steps taken to terminate two of the employees and the others in line for removal if they don’t change their minds, Moore said.

Nearly eight of 10 LAPD employees are fully vaccinated, and 78% have received at least one dose, with 172 workers getting their first shot in the last week.

As in other police forces around the U.S., however, the LAPD has met some resistance to its COVID-19 rule, including a request for a temporary restraining order by the union representing its officers, which was denied by a judge on Wednesday.

“I will not comply at all. The only thing mandatory for me right now is defiance,” LAPD Officer Mike McMahon told CBSLA. The 14-year veteran of the police department, who was among those staging a recent protest across from City Hall, also predicted the vaccine requirement would spark a mass exodus of fellow employees.

The LAPD is probing photos posted on social media of three LAPD officers walking toward a vaccine-mandate protest in uniform, but Moore believes they were monitoring the event as part of their jobs and not as participants.

“If anyone went on-duty-capacity and in uniform and participated in that demonstration that would be wrong,” Moore said, adding he would await the findings of the formal investigation.