Beijing is to recruit 6,500 more police and increase medical checkups from once every two years to once a year, in order to improve their physical and mental health, according to the Beijing News on Sunday.

"It should be a young and strong team, but medical checkups in recent years show that police officers have a higher morbidity rate than other groups," the paper quoted local authorities as describing serving officers.

According to the report, the municipal police department applied to add more personnel to save staff from overworking, and the move has been approved by local authorities.

The capital now has 63,489 police serving in local public security departments, procuratorates and the people's courts, with 64 percent of them under 40 years old.

Rates of high blood pressure, hyperlipemia and hyperglycemia are higher in police than the general population, and they are more likely to have unhealthy lifestyles and working patterns and to experience psychological problems.

In recent years, personnel shortages have been identified as contributing to a worsening of their health.

The Ministry of Public Security is also launching a national mental health survey involving 1.7 million police officers this year.

(Xinhua News Agency June 7, 2005)