THE newly introduced police officer annual fitness test is \u201cwrong and irrelevant\u201d, police officers heard at an open meeting this week.<\/p>\n
John Blanchard, chairman of Humberside Police Federation, (pictured) told the Fed\u2019s annual meeting that \u201cbeing able to run isn\u2019t a prerequisite for being a damn good police officer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Blanchard, speaking to around 250 police officers from the\u00a0force,\u00a0said: \u201cLet\u2019s talk about the fitness test. Cheap, cheerful, irrelevant and prone to cause you injury \u2013 it\u2019s a bit like the rest of the Winsor report.\u201d<\/p>\n
From September, police officers who undertake officer safety training have been required to attain level 5:4 on a 15-metre shuttle run as part of an annual fitness test.<\/p>\n
Reports emerged from South Yorkshire Police this week that two officers had injured themselves taking part in the test.<\/p>\n
Mr Blanchard told officers:\u00a0\u201cFor the first time the test is compulsory. It\u2019s wrong, it\u2019s irrelevant and being able to run isn\u2019t a prerequisite for being a damn good police officer.<\/p>\n
\u201cLadies and gents, if you are in any doubt as to whether you will be injured as a result of taking the test, speak to your line management and get referred to Occupational Health as soon as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also attending the meeting at the Lazaat Hotel, Cottingham, on Monday, 14 July were Justice Curran, chief constable of Humberside Police, and the area\u2019s Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Grove.<\/p>\n
The meeting heard that when the force was formed in 1974, there were 1,910 police officers. Mr Blanchard said current numbers were 1,621, with that projected to fall to 1,420 in 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy question is how low can you go?\u201d said Mr Blanchard. \u201cThe same question that has been posed to the Force in 2008 and every year since. Our highest number of officers was some years ago with 2,263. That number was achievable with a reasonable precept figure.<\/p>\n
\u201cCommissioner, your counterpart in North Yorkshire, Julia Mulligan declared she would draw a line in the sand at the number of officers she inherited on the first day of her tenure. That was 1,392. You inherited 1,745. We are now at 1,621.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe public has lost 10 officers per month since you entered office. Commissioner, I need to press you to levy a precept which will allow a credible service to be maintained, not one that will wither on the vine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe harsh reality about cuts is that you only get one thing from them \u2013 less.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Blanchard told officers: \u201cPolicing in the modern era is about so much more than crime. It\u2019s about those things that can\u2019t be counted, vulnerable people, people missing from home, road safety, anti social behaviour and all the other reasons we can list at the drop of a hat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose things which the public know they can rely on us for and no one else, and that is why officers on the street, immediately available are so important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also at the meeting \u2013 the first since Mr Blanchard has become chairman \u2013 were Steve Williams, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, and general secretary Ian Rennie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE newly introduced police officer annual fitness test is \u201cwrong and irrelevant\u201d, police officers heard at an open meeting this week. John Blanchard, chairman of Humberside Police Federation, (pictured) told\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=546"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":548,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546\/revisions\/548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}