There’s an obesity epidemic in this country that’s getting worse by the day. But sadly, we’re not the only ones suffering from exploding waistlines and dangerously unhealthy eating. Our friends across the pond are also suffering with an obesity crisis.
And like the US, the UK is dealing with police forces that have gone from lean and mean to fat and slow.
It’s gotten so bad, that 50 officers from one UK police department gained so much weight, they couldn’t fit into their “special ops” uniforms.
The full weight of the law proved too much as police failed to squeeze into uniforms for a Christmas op.
Each year a force’s plain-clothed officers join uniformed colleagues on the streets to increase police presence as a deterrent.
But last year about 50 plain-clothed officers from West Midlands Police had piled on so much weight that they needed new uniforms so Birmingham’s operation Silent Night could go ahead.
This year some officers have been put on fitness and weight loss plans to avoid a repeat of 2021.
A former bobby said: “Officers were highly visible but not in the way that was expected. It was a big problem – in more ways than one. Many officers who had not worn their uniform since the previous year couldn’t fit into them.
“Some needed adjustments and others needed completely new uniforms. It cost a few quid.
“There’d have been a few red faces if the op had been called off because of overweight officers.” In 2020 Hampshire Police admitted more than two thirds of its officers were overweight.
Clearly, this is an issue that impacts public safety and needs to be addressed here, and abroad.
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