Laps Bands for Obese Cops
You know how stereotypes can sometimes be more true than not.
Case in point: police vehicles in donut parking lots.
One would assume that the ingestion of donuts — and a subsequent weight gain — would also be under way.
Down Under in Australia, the police may not be loading up on donuts but biscuits (“cookies” in the U.S.) and other fattening foods.
According to The Perth Sunday Times, taxpayers are helping to pay for overweight police officers to have Lap Band surgery. The police union is contributing the equivalent of $2000 toward each officer’s surgery; the cost of Lap Band surgery in Australia is about $6000. The idea is to combat chronic illness, lowering other health costs.
As any Lap Band doctor can tell you, chronic illnesses that are usually resolved after weight loss surgery include:
- Hypertension, or, high blood pressure
- Type II diabetes
- Sleep apnea
But the Lap Band help is being criticized Down Under because the police are undergoing a general belt-tightening ( financial belt tightening, unfortunately) and have already cut back on mobile phones, motorcycles and even patrol cars.
Australian researchers writing in Obesity Journal, surveyed 323 Lap Band patients three years after their surgery and found 91 percent would have the weight loss surgery again. (Read the Lap Band doctor article.)
In the U.S., police officers are often required to stay in shape. After all, a cop never knows when he or she must chase a bank robber on foot!
So news about overweight cops is constantly being made.
For instance, a five-foot-nine Bellevue, Nebraska, policeman, Chris Parent, was fired back in 2007 at 350 pounds because he just was not nimble enough.
The crunch? Parent took a combat course test requiring him to kneel, fire his sidearm at a target, move to another location and fire again. But the officer could not stand again after kneeling without grabbing onto something for support.
Parent battled his case through the Nebraska Supreme Court who ordered the officer reinstated in 2009 with full back pay.
In Thailand, 340 portly traffic cops are told to hit the gym, lose at least 10 pounds and get into shape within three months. A survey found 57 percent of the force is overweight, with high cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
The day might come when Lap Bands are as common as badges to police forces.
admin @ March 9, 2010