South Yorkshire Federation Backs Local Power to Assess Fitness of Police Recruits

Police forces should be empowered to decide if potential new recruits are right for the job, South Yorkshire Police Federation said.

It followed new occupational health guidance being issued to forces wanting to medically assess applicants.

Federation Chair Steve Kent said forces must be able to assess if those applicants would make a “fit and proper police officer” if employed.

He said: “Sadly, we know officers come into the police and they become poorly, they get injured or they develop ailments which means they may not be a frontline police officer.

“We would always support those officers to make sure they’re protected and given the proper support for positive deployment elsewhere in the force.

“But we also need to make sure that people coming through the door are fit, both mentally and physically, to be police officers.

“That has to be robust to make sure that it is done properly.”

Steve said further empowering police leaders would help to keep standards high while not exposing new recruits to dangerous incidents they were not prepared for.

He added: “We need to be fair, we need to be robust and we need to have that guidance.”