Thailand is going all out to help its obese police officers shed their excess kilograms.
According to Khaosod, a Thai newspaper, the country’s police force recently launched a pilot program, straightforwardly named “Belly Destruction,” to force overweighed policemen to get their waist line back to an acceptable measure.
“There are so many problems if you’re a fat cop. You work slow and move slow as you go tumbling about. That’s unacceptable if you’re an officer tasked with arresting criminals, since you have to be deft and go quickly,” Senior Sergeant Major Sornpetch Chantarak, a dietary enforcer in the initiative, told a Khaosod reporter.
As part of the “Belly Destruction” program, cops deemed too pot-bellied by their police station will be nominated for a stint in the trial program. They will be sent to the Central Police Training Center in Pak Chong City for two weeks where they will participate in intense diet and exercise like biking and climbing.
The first round of “Belly Destruction” went over successfully this month with 200 participants, said Chantarak. According to the police trainer, some dropped as much as 20 kilograms from 80 kilograms. More impressive cases lost over 60 kilograms from 200 kilograms.
Because of their stocky build, most participants before the program have been relegated to desk jobs, doing paperwork and filing records — think Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Hitchcock and Scully. It remains to be seen if the diet camp will help the officers get back into more active roles.
[Photos via Facebook page Love Police]
