WIDE BLUE LINE
Lardy cops lead to big orders for XL trousers
BLOBBY bobbies have led police bosses to call for reinforcements – in the trouser department.
They have had to order in thousands of pairs of extra large pants for beltbusting constables.
The Met Police revealed it ordered in
3,007 pairs of uniform trousers for officers last year where the waist measurement was 40in or more.
That included 23 pairs with a 50in waist and 102 that were 48in.
Medical experts say a good guide to health for a man is that their waist measurement should be no more than half their height. That means a 6ft man should keep his waist measurement down to 36in, while 35in should be the maximum for a man of 5ft 10in tall.
It also means anybody with a 40in waist would be 6ft 6in tall and anybody needing 52in trousers would be over 8ft tall to justify their belly measurement.
The West Midlands force ordered
1,572 pairs of trousers for men and women last year in excess of 40in. This included 25 pairs for men with a 50in waist and three pairs that were 52in.
In South Yorkshire, 362 pairs ordered last year were 40in or bigger, including eight for men with a waist of 50in.
Merseyside Police said they ordered in two pairs of 48in-waist trousers last year as well as 22 with a 45in waist – but a short inside leg measurement.
It comes just six years after the Met’s then Commissioner Sir Bernard HoganHowe warned overweight officers they either had to shape or be sacked.
In 2014, compulsory annual officer fitness tests were brought in but there were complaints they were not strict enough.
Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said: “The day may come when people die because overweight staff can’t reach them in time and the public... will rightly demand to know why.”