to agree that fat coppers need to slim down

[shagmundfreud]

... or have their pay docked. Or something.

Rarely in agreement with government plans for anything, but now that over 50% of male policemen are apparently officially overweight, I think plans to encourage force them to lose weight are a very good thing.

How can they possibly chase and catch criminals (who are mostly young and fit and scared) if they're carrying extra poundage?

Want to add, interesting that smaller percentage of women coppers are fat, given that a higher percentage of females than males are overweight in the general population.

Fwiw we do have not complete a fitness test for the first 2 years of our service.

Arachnophobic - passing the test to get in the force is very difficult actually. It's a full day of exams and roll plays. By "working with these fuckers every day" i take it you're not actually part of the police service and are jealous plenty of wannabe bobbies out there.

"Also your point about it should only take one person to deal with a scrote, have you ever tried to deal with someone pissed, on drugs who has no pain threshold and is literally fighting for their life?"

But isnt that exactly why a police office needs to be fit? To be able to physically deal with people like that?

Of course police who go on patrols need to be fit. Sorry but I have seen police chase and easily fail to catch suspects running away from them and tbh the police in question seemed pretty unfit.

I'd like to think these days brains outwit braun surely.
For their own good police the same as everyone else should be fit as a fiddle but that is for them to manage and in their own time.

DH is a police officer. He does 2 fitness tests a year in order to retain his ticket to do PSU and CBRN work. The areas where you would expect fitness. In his normal day to day job he would never, ever, ever chase somebody down the street unless they nicked his sandwich.

This is such a smokescreen in terms of the really damaging elements of the Windsor review.

It's so unworkable under its current guise. You can't compare to other services or even the army where the fitness is worked on in duty time. Our fire service have a gym and spend hours a day playing volleyball. DH doesn't get chance to eat he's that busy. They're already overworked, the fitness cannot be included in their working day as it would be to the detriment of their work. But hang on, let's outsource all work to private firms. That might give them the time, eh? What a convenient thought...

To train enough to stay fit dh leaves for work at 4am and we don't see him until the evening. He is only able to do this because he's 30 and maintains his level of fitness from youth. His 55yo colleague who does exactly the same day job as him cannot be expected to attain this level of fitness. Nor does he need to.

I have no problem in principle with increasing the fitness of officers but this whole thing is poorly reported. The stats are skewed anyway for the reasons noted. A lot of police officers DO have to pass annual fitness tests in order to retain elements of their positions. And all the evidence on here? Too unfit to kick in a door? Ordinary officers aren't allowed to kick in doors which is why they don't do it. You have to be specifically trained in the use of the big red key and you spend a lot of time doing this. 5 officers pin down a criminal due to safety, not due to the weight of the first officer on scene, it's controlling the situation.

And the current fitness test you pass to join is bollocks. I can run 10k easily and do regularly. I am fit and healthy, cycle everywhere, workout daily and could NOT pass the push/pull element without specifically training to do so and even then it would be a close thing and would prove useless in the long run.

What needs to be looked at is the health of officers really where necessary. Supporting them to have time to eat some food or have a work/life balance. You cannot give them more work, take away more money, make their working conditions impossible, snatch away pensions and just introduce arbitrary fitness requirements on top of it all. It's so much more complicated than 'just introduce an annual fitness test'. It'll work for what they want it to work, sure. Because if you can't make them redundant, you can find another way to unfairly dismiss.

Healthier officers in general wouldd be marvellous. The way they'd go about it? Terrible.

Blimey - a thread about police and fat people. A perfect storm.

Absolutely SOH.

By all means bring in regular testing but make it possible for officers to train to achieve the required levels. Like the forces do.

This is a underhand way of getting rid of officers on the cheap - ie not having to pay redundancy.

Are all criminals who run away male skinny youths? Generalising much? I am guessing that with police officers becoming more overweight, the people who break the law are also becoming more overweight too!

Fwiw I work in retail, we detain people and police officers come in and question them, any witnesses and check CCTV then decide whether to arrest or not. we don't let them go and arrest the ones that are chased down!

Not saying too much as I'd out myself, but I have heard of a female detective who wears high heels on the job (plus perma-fake tan and nails, icye). Accompanying a suspect who legged it, she was asked if she'd chased him: 'I can't run in these shoes' was the reply.

(This came up in conversation because I took issue with fact Keeley Hawes dressed as if she was off to a nightclub and I didn't think any female in a role like that would dress in such an impractical way).

< possibly irrelevant fact but stating it anyway >

DH wears brogues at work. Doubt they're brilliant for running in either but the detectives don't afaik spend a lot of time in trainers sitting in the starting blocks.

Can you link to some peer reviewed evidence based research about perma tan and fitness levels too?

Er, no

In principle it makes perfect sense to an avid Daily -Mail reader.--
However, when you consider that it is such a small part of what only a small percentage of police officers do, and the likelihood of catching the average teenager in trainers when you are carrying an extra stone in the weight of your protective equipment, then the argument fails to stack up.

Those who are likely to be able to maintain a level of fitness where they actually have a chance of catching these people (as opposed to the nominal level of fitness that is likely to be introduced) with all the disadvantages listed above, will be predominantly young, single, inexperienced, male officers. I would like a team of police officers - who are more likely to be dealing with people who have been assaulted, burgled, bereaved etc to be a more rounded (pardon the pun) section of society.

MrBojangles, you say that your employer wouldn't take you on if you smoked or were fat. However they don't seem terribly discerning re the fact that you are a bit of a pillock.

I am not a police officer, and I am not very fit.

However I remember that when I read the Recuitment literature it said something like "As a police officer you may need to chase someone, and you may need to hold someone is trying to get away, so you need to be fit and able"

So if it's true when you join...

If you are basically an office worker who sits behind a desk, should you be on the same pay, conditions and pension as a civilian worker who is also employed by a Police authority and is also an office worker who sits behind a desk?

I used to work with A&E nurses who were too fat to resusitate

at deeppurple not a wannabe officer I assure you, my salary is twice theirs for a start!

And I'm sure you are putting your life on the line every working day and deserve every penny.

Piglet. I understand your thought processes, but it is not quite that simple. As someone who works on the "front line" and recently passed the riot training fitness test (quite amazed after 2 kids and at 40ish ) I am all for those who are in permanent office jobs getting paid less.

However there really are very few of these roles left. The majority will have illness/disability issues and therefore will not be discriminated against. Those who are not will be in roles such as Child Protection, Safeguarding (vulnerable victims), CID etc and they will still have front-line responsibilities and will be called upon in extreme circumstances. They have other skills and experience that make them valuable in their roles and to pay them less because they might not be able to pass a fitness test is absurd.

Wondering what will happen when less people apply to be police because they are scared of loosing their jobs before retirement age or having their pay docked as they get older and find it harder to pass a fitness test. Will forces around the country have more trouble hiring people and also retaining those with experience and who are otherwise good at their job.

If fitness is a requirement of their job then perhaps they should have time every shift to work out and should have to log the time. Of course, this would require more police to cover shifts and costs would go up, are you prepared to pay for this? If police officers were paid to workout I should imagine the average level of portliness would go down.