Obese Traffic Cops Get Reassigned In Vietnam

Obese traffic caps will soon get reassigned to desk jobs in Vietnam.

According to Reuters, obese, short, or abusive officers will be banned from working the streets of Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. Any obese officers currently working on the streets will be reassigned to a desk job in Hanoi.

According to a local newspaper, the police force is trying to clean up its image. The department is making a list of its “worst offenders” who will be reassigned. Officers who remain on traffic duty will be required to carry a book of rules with them in order to make sure that they behave properly.

Colonel Dao Vinh Thang, head of the Hanoi Traffic Police Department, was quoted saying:

“Little officers, or those with too big a belly will be moved to work in offices instead of guiding traffic and settling violations … Police with pot-bellies, or who are too small, will be moved to office work to avoid their coming into contact with the public … This is one of the strategies to build up the image of Hanoi’s traffic police in 2013.”

Thang also said that a team of inspectors will hit the streets in order to observe the traffic officers who remain on duty.

Vietnam’s traffic police, who have been frequently voted “the most corrupt” institution in the communist country, have been trying to improve their image for years. The AFP reports that city officials banned traffic officers from wearing sunglasses in 2011. They also started hiring female officers to work busy corners in order to “cast a friendly light.”

The traffic officials in Vietnam may not have the best public image, but it must be difficult working on traffic corners like this one in Ho Chi Minh.

Do you think reassigning obese officers is the right way to change the image of the police force? Do you think Vietnam would ever consider something as drastic as more training?