HEALTH AND THE POLICE
By BERNARD J. FARMER
THE public may imagine a policeman's job to be a healthy one. He works largely in the open air ; his income is sufficient for him to afford good meals, or as good as anyone else can get under rationing, and he is usually a big, strong-looking man, the uniform adding to this impression. But there is another side to the picture. Many policemen suffer from stomach troubles, .nervous disorders, bad legs, rheumatism. In general, care of the constable, the man who works a beat—pounding the stones, he calls it—begins only after he is ill. Medical and dental services in the Police Forces are excellent. If a policeman has false teeth, they are noticeably good in fit and quality. If he gets an ulcer in his stomach—and very many do—he receives the best of medical attention ; and afterwards There are convalescent homes where everything possible is done to make him well. Then back to the beat he goes, and he is lucky if the conditions he works under don't make him ill again.
It has been said by serving men that night duty takes ten years off a man's life. This may be true—policemen as a class do not seem to live very long—but night duty will always have to be a feature of the job, because criminals are hardly likely to be obliging enough to iconfine their activities to the- day-time. Night duty could, however, be made much easier for the man than it is. A P.C. "on nights" needs his rest. Seven and a half hours' street duty on a bitter January night taxes every bit of strength that a strong man has in him, and when he books off at 6 a.m. he is entitled to have as much sleep as he requires to restore him. But what happens? Often he has to go to court. He may have a couple of hours' sleep ; then someone has to shout and hammer at his door to wake him up to get ready for a to a.m. sitting. If he is lucky, his case comes on almost at once, and he can say his piece in the witness-box and then go home to bed. But sometimes a summons of comparatively trivial nature--perhaps a pedal-cycle ridden without lights—will keep him hanging about in the court-room till well on in the after- noon ; and then perhaps the defendant has written pleading not guilty, so the case inust be adjourned for him to appear in person. Then the constable is free to go home and get what rest he can before parading again for night duty.
With a charge, where a prisoner has been detained, there can be no delay in hearing a case ; and the constable on night duty who gets a charge must accept " court " next day or as soon after as the court sits as part of the job. But surely where summonses are concerned the duty roster could be consulted, and they could be arranged for hearing when the officers in the case are on day duty. Or, alternatively, the clerk of the court could arrange to take the cases of men on night duty first. But hitherto no one has dreamed of giving the constable such consideration. It has been said that the medical examination for entry into the Police Forces is so strict and the standard of physical fitness is so high that ever after the man is expected to stand anything. But a survey of the Police Forces as they are today suggests no such conclusion.
Revolving duties cause man; of the policeman's breakdowns in heakh. In the Metropolitan Police the twenty-four hours are covered by three reliefs of eight hours each, called the early turn, the late turn and night duty; and periodically a P.C. is switched from one to another. He is supposed to have a week's early, then a week's late, and so on for two months ; after which he goes " nights " for a whole month, which is a wise provision, for it takes most men a week or two to settle down to sleeping in the day-time. But men posted "spare "—not assigned to a definite beat—on the roster, which is changed every four weeks, are moved about from day to day, with one day early and the next late, then back to early again ; or late to night and back to late again. In the case of quick change-overs, such as late to early, a man can have only a few hours' sleep before he goes on duty for another eight hours. Sergeants making up the daily duty-board do as they think fit, just taking the men as so many numbers.
P.C.s in County Forces in which "split" duties are woiked are worse off still. They go from the station to their homes and back again in a way which makes them feel that they are never free from duty, until the weekly leave-day comes round ; and then in some Forces a P.C. must obtain permission before he goes out of the district. Shortage of men may be blamed for a lot of the changing and chopping about, because when a P.C. takes his weekly leave or annual leave or reports sick his beat must be covered by some- body else ; but much of it is due to pure want of thought on the part of those responsible for making out duties. It is a grim truth that in the Police Forces the personal convenience of men is not studied. When men are available, extra patrols are filled, some of them with fantastic hours like 4 p.m. to midnight. Just imagine what round-the-clock duties mean from a wife's point of view. Often she must cook twice, one meal for herself and the children to suit school hours, and another when her husband comes home. Or she can keep his dinner hot, steaming between two plates, for several hours,—which will not help his digestion.
Even if revolving duties are expertly arranged, a man must go nine hours or more without a meal at home. At present he is allowed one half - hour for refreshment during his period of duty. In this time he must bolt his food. It seems astonishing that medical officers attached to the Police Forces have not made their voices heard sufficiently loudly, alone or in concert, to get the half-hour extended to an hour. What other walk of life treats its rank-and-file so scurvily? In small stations which have no canteen the policeman must cook his meal as well as eat it during the half-hour, or bring sandwiches and make himself a cup of tea. And it should be remembered that if the P.C. takes two minutes over his scheduled half-hour in the station he may find himself "on the rattle "—placed on a report—and be hauled up before the superintendent, and perhaps be fined a day's pay. All this begins to mount up ; and the fact emerges that the policeman's job is not so healthy. But under the 1921 Tensions Act, which applies to the majority of men now serving, thirty years Must be served before the full pension, two-thirds pay, is secured. It is true that a P.C. can retire after twenty-five years and be given a pension, but it will only be half-pay ; and what man will not for the sake of his wife and family try to soldier on for the full thirty? There have been cases of P.C.s with varicose veins in their legs like ropes struggling to carry on, not daring to "go sick" any more for fear of being "cast "—discharged before their time as unfit.
Thirty years is too long. Men working inside the station, doing office hours, nine to five, can manage it, of course ; but we are not concerned with them. The great majority of foot-sloggers lead a very different life, and they cannot do thirty comfortably. Many can't do it at all. A P.C.'s job is a young man's job. Every week come out lists of names of those who have been cast ; and for them a "whip round" is made in Divisions. But that is robbing Peter to pay Paul. The length of service for full pension should be twenty-five years. After all, the P.C. contributes week by week towards his pension in what are termed rateable deductions from his pay, so it isn't entirely a gift. These and other matters to do with the health of the P.C. urgently need attention if he is to be satisfied, and if the needed recruits for the Forces are to be obtained.
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