Police forces should be empowered to decide if potential new recruits are right for the job, South Yorkshire Police Federation said.<\/p>\n
It followed new occupational health guidance being issued to forces wanting to medically assess applicants.<\/p>\n
Federation Chair Steve Kent said forces must be able to assess if those applicants would make a \u201cfit and proper police officer\u201d if employed.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cSadly, 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would always support those officers to make sure they\u2019re protected and given the proper support for positive deployment elsewhere in the force.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we also need to make sure that people coming through the door are fit, both mentally and physically, to be police officers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat has to be robust to make sure that it is done properly.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWe need to be fair, we need to be robust and we need to have that guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n