Obese Traffic Cops Reassigned: Hanoi Police Department Wants 'Little Officers' And Rude Cops Off Vietnam's Streets, Too [PHOTO]

The Hanoi Police Department, battling an image problem, is reassigning traffic cops that fit those criteria, Vietnamese newspaper Tien Phong reported Wednesday, according to Reuters.

"Little officers, or those with too big a belly will be moved to work in offices instead of guiding traffic and settling violations," Colonel Dao Vinh Thang, head of the Hanoi Traffic Police Department, told the Hanoi daily.

Citizens in the Vietnamese capital of 7 million people have criticized traffic cops for being corrupt and abusive, according to Reuters. And improving the image of Hanoi traffic cops has included deploying female officers.

Vietnam is not the only South Asian country to bring down the hammer on obese officers. Similar measures have been taken in Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines, as well as in Britain, Reuters reported.

Those countries' reforms have included forcing cops to drop weight before they could return to the force.