By msnbc.com news services
British police officers must prove their fitness in annual tests or have their pay docked after a survey found that 53 percent were overweight and one in 100 was morbidly obese, a review concluded Thursday.
The government-commissioned report into police pay and conditions suggested that officers who failed a fitness test three times should be disciplined and could lose 8 percent of their salary, as much as $4,700 for some.
The report follows a survey of more than 11,500 staff on London's police force, which found that 44 percent were overweight, 19 percent obese and 1 percent morbidly obese, the report said.
The review, which comes as the government seeks to make cuts of some 20 percent to police budgets as part of austerity measures, recommended other wide-ranging changes which would allow officers to be sacked, cut starting salaries, raise the pension age and require staff to have better qualifications.
Tom Winsor, who led the 18-month review, told the Daily Mirror that fitness, qualifications, skills and experience should all be at the heart of the police pay system in future.
"Running after a suspect, or apprehending a violent or disturbed person, requires physical fitness and strength," Winsor told the British paper. "All officers need to be physically fit enough to do their jobs."
According to the Mirror, Winsor said even chief constables should face the tests, pointing to how senior officers led their officers during the riots in several English cities last summer.
The proposals, while generally welcomed by chief constables, have not gone down well with ordinary officers who are facing pay freezes, higher pension contributions and a cut in numbers.
"Police officers have had enough of the constant state of uncertainty and the deliberate, sustained attack on them by this government," said Paul McKeever, Chairman of Police Federation of England and Wales.
"The service cannot take any more; enough is enough."
But Winsor told the Mirror the public will be surprised to learn that after passing a fitness test at the point of entry, physical fitness is not tested again for most officers, whose careers can sometimes span decades.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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