Police sick leave revealed

Ten sick or stressed police officers last year all took more than 120 sick days each last year .

And on average, sworn police officers took 8.5 sick days each, figures from police national headquarters showed, The Press newspaper reported today.

The 10 highest amounts of sick leave taken last year were between 120 and 178 days, police human resources general manager Wayne Annan said .

He said the reasons for taking the leave were physical, medical and psychological illnesses.

Police officers could accrue sick leave and some also contributed to a sick leave "bank", for officers who had legitimately used up all their sick leave but needed more after dealing with incidents that could have had a severe impact on them.

"Doing things like picking up brains from the side of the road is not a pleasant task," Mr Annan told the newspaper.

He said the average of 8.5 sick days a year was down on 8.8 the previous year.

- NZPA