THERE is no dispute that police officers have a job that is among the most dangerous and stressful of all and that, as a result, their sickness levels can be expected to be higher than those of other occupations.

But, again, we see the force's sick leave bill in Lancashire reaching staggering proportions - of more than £6 million every year; money which is drawn from the resources for the fight against crime.

Yet, if all this sickness was a grim, but natural consequence of the job, its effect on the taxpayers' pocket and its sapping influence on the efforts to beat the criminal would have to be stoically borne by the public.

But was not a culture of institutionalised absenteeism in sectors of the country's police exposed some 18 months ago when a report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary found wide variations in sickness rates and retirements on ground of ill health among forces which, doing essentially the same job, would ordinarily be expected to have similar levels? And was not the scope for quick improvement highlighted by Lancashire effecting sharp reductions in retirements on medical grounds - once running at the astonishing level of 60 per cent - inside two years?

It was apparent that when a firmer management response to sickness levels was taken, they could be reduced.

But now we find them rising again and, worse, infecting the force's civilian and support workforce to the extent that, even though they have arguably a less stressful role and, surely, a less dangerous one, they are taking even more time off than police officers themselves. To us, this speaks of some slippage of the efforts to reduce sickness by "active measures " that the force spoke of last year when Home Secretary Jack Straw pledged a crackdown on this baleful and costly phenomenon.

Let us have the measures beefed up to include, for instance, spot-check home visits on absentees and the kind of interviews and counselling that other employers use to monitor their most-frequently sick workers.

The genuinely sick and ill would have no fear of this and conscientious employees would welcome it if it helped to remove from them the workloads of absentees who should be at work.

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