Over 70% of South Yorkshire Police officers say they have at least one physical health condition that they believe to be caused by or made worse by wearing uniform.<\/p>\n
In the first-ever National Uniform & Equipment Survey, carried out by Lancaster University and the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW), South Yorkshire Police officers reported the second highest rate of dissatisfaction with uniform out of all the forces in the country.<\/p>\n
Steve Kent, Chair of South Yorkshire Police Federation, said: \u201cThis is really concerning. We get our uniform regionally, which isn’t ideal. We get a lot of comments from both male and female officers that they have issues with the uniform, for different reasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the winter, some officers say the clothing is not warm enough. And some of our female officers really struggle with the trousers, which means they approach the force for more expensive trousers, which has a cost implication, and then you have some people getting them and some people not. So it’s an absolute disaster.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also need cotton shirts for police officers rather than the horrendous polyester ones, which just sweat and smell.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve added that the new stab vests were a particular concern, with officers reporting that they are uncomfortable. \u201cSome officers even keep their old stab vests from years ago because they\u2019re more comfortable, but there may be health and safety implications from that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cThis issue needs to be driven nationally, as well as in our force. We need to get on top of it. The Federation is doing some really good work on this and highlighting the issue, and it’s certainly something that’s been talked about a lot in our force.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Camilla De Camargo, one of the Lancaster University research leads, said: \u201cInconsistent uniform quality across forces has created a \u2018postcode lottery\u2019, where access to high-performance kit depends more on local budgets than operational need. This inequity impacts health, wellbeing, morale, and undermines national policing standards.\u201d<\/p>\n