Fat cops get taxpayer gastric banding

* By Nicole Cox
* From: No Source
* February 7, 2010 3:05AM

AUSTRALIAN taxpayers are helping to pay for overweight cops to have radical gastric-banding stomach surgery as part of a fat-busting initiative.

The Perth Sunday Times reports the West Australian Police and the police union have agreed to pay up to $2,000 towards lap-banding operations for obese officers in a bid to counter chronic illnesses.

Several officers, mostly front line and traffic police, have already undergone the surgery, the West Australian Police Union confirmed yesterday.

The expenditure coincides with drastic West Australian (WA) government ordered belt-tightening, which has seen front line officers stripped of 115 mobile phones.

As well, more than 80 police motorcycles have been sold off and the police fleet slashed by 50 vehicles after a directive to reduce car costs by 10 per cent.

Under laparoscopic gastric banding surgery, a band, similar to the size of a wrist watch, is fastened around the upper stomach to create a small pouch which restricts the amount of food that can be consumed.

Operations generally cost about $6,000.

Public Health Association of Australia president Mike Daube slammed the move, saying he was shocked that police, who were meant to be among the fittest and most active members of society, would be candidates for obesity surgery.

"If police officers are so obese that they need gastric banding surgery, they're not going to be very effective coppers," said Prof Daube, a former WA Health Department director-general.

"We need our police to be fit, not fat."

But WA Police executive director Greg Italiano defended the initiative, saying the subsidy was a worthwhile investment in improving the health of police officers who were suffering obesity-related chronic illness and would inevitably save the force money.

http://www.news.com.au/
http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/taxpayer...5827426189

Fire the donut guzzlers when they can't pass the physical.,, WTF, why should some gobberment employee get a free pass on personal responsibility.

Quoting:  Godot

Fire the donut guzzlers when they can't pass the physical.,, WTF, why should some gobberment employee get a free pass on personal responsibility.

That was the first thing i was thinking.. How can they ever get obese if they have to pass physical exams? Isn't there some level of overall condition required for cops????

So... they'll have to eat donut holes instead of whole donuts?