Cops get fit with Be Fit

Twenty-five police officers, last Monday at the Arnos Vale Playing Field, began a one-month stint with the Be Fit Movement, with the overall aim of getting a fitter, healthier and more productive constabulary.

The officers, who were selected from various ranks of the force, will be under the guidance of fitness trainer Lindon James.

A joint effort by the Be Fit Movement and the Grassroots Tennis Club (GTC), the officers will be taken through their routines on weekdays, from 4 to 5 p.m.

These recent efforts have their genesis in a comment made five years ago by then Commissioner of Police Keith Miller at a junior non-commissioned officers orientation course.

“You cannot operate effectively if you are an oversized policeman… It makes you look ugly in your uniform….Your deportment has to be smart as a policeman, and if you allow yourself to gain too much weight, well, you know it will financially cost us a lot, because we have to use more materials to build your clothes,” Miller said then.

Five years later, Miller’s concerns have been given some attention.

Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of crime Frankie Joseph, who is among the officers taking part in the fitness training, explained the rationale for the programme in an interview with SEARCHLIGHT on Monday.

“We wanted to organize a programme like this for a number of years now…. One can remember former Commissioner of Police (Keith) Miller commented that a fit workforce is a healthy work force,” Joseph recalled.

“During that time we purchased some T-shirts and some sweat pants, but that fitness programme never materialized,” Joseph added.

He noted that the new fitness programme is a microcosm of an overall drive towards the wellness within the Royal St Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force (RSVGPF) and added that a structured internal fitness manual is being prepared by a member of the police force, who was trained in Cuba.

“A healthy police force is a productive police force…. At the end of this programme, we are hopeful that the force will see the need for fitness,” he said.

In addition, Joseph revealed that at present, the legal instruments for the

incorporation of the Police Sports Club are lodged at the Attorney-General’s Office.

Joseph projected that in the not too distant future, there will be a renaissance in sporting disciplines practised by the institution’s members.  

Currently, the RSVGPF competes in football, softball and cricket competitions at the community and national levels.

Joseph envisaged that with the coming on stream of the Police Sports Club, there will be a revival namel,y in athletics, netball and volleyball.(RT)