Police to keep track of obese officers

The police force will start recording data to keep track on obese police officers starting next year with the target to achieve its "trim and fit" mission by 2018.

Royal Malaysian Police management director Datuk Seri Zulkifli Abdullah said that they had identified some 10,000 police officers who were facing weight problems and hoped by 2018, 90 percent of the police force would be fit.

"We want our officers to be active and if they do not achieve the target set, they will face a setback in their career as a police officer," he said after the Police National Sports Day, at the Botanical Garden here.

He also urged every police officer to start now to lose weight or obtain the ideal body weight to be fit in order to achieve the target set.

Starting Jan 1, 2018, the police will enforce the requirement for their officers to pass a fitness test before receiving any promotion and confirmation.

Once the program starts, all police officers will have to undergo the Physical Ability Requirement Evaluation set that had been adopted by the police force overseas including Canada and also the United Nation.

The Police National Sports Day celebration today was officiated with VAT69 commandos jumping from the helicopter. - BERNAMApic

On another matter, Zulkifli also said that out of 130,000 police officers nationwide, only less than one percent were involved in disciplinary issues.

"We admit that there is a small percentage of officers who have disciplinary issues but we have never condoned any of the behaviour. We have always been transparent in the process," he said.

He also added that starting from 2015, the management body had an exit policy for low performing police officers.

"We have identified some 200 officers and will give them a chance to improve themselves, but if their performance is still not up to par, we will have to retire them early," he said.

Earlier, some 3,000 police officers from different units and states had gathered at the Botanical Garden for the National Sports Day.

This is the first time the police had conducted such activities outside Kuala Lumpur and the force had displayed their numerous assets including horses, helicopters and high powered motorcycles that were being used by the police force to tackle crime in the state. -- Bernama