That's why we have stuff like body mass index. By using a ratio system you can determine whether or not you're overweight, regardless of your height.47man wrote:
Weight requirements won't work, because of the immense difference in size people can be. I am 6'5" and someone that is 5'6" that wieghs the same as me is going to be quite large.... I weigh about 190.
Well I suppose I should have included tazers and the rest, but they're still trained and capable with them.Homeschtar wrote:
That's the problem though. Say some kid is running away from an out of shape cop, is the cop just supposed to shoot him? Or let him go? Neither of those are acceptable, so they need to be in shape.Poseidon wrote:
They've got guns and are trained with them.
My friend's life was saved by an overweight cop, actually. Some guy in boston jumped him and was pretty much going to kill him and a cop saw him and took him down with a tazer after he came at the cop with the same knife
he almost killed the cop with.
Point is: They may not be able to run very fast, but they're still capable.
I realize that, that's why I said weight requirements, not body fat percentage requirement.Spearhead wrote:
That's why we have stuff like body mass index. By using a ratio system you can determine whether or not you're overweight, regardless of your height.47man wrote:
Weight requirements won't work, because of the immense difference in size people can be. I am 6'5" and someone that is 5'6" that wieghs the same as me is going to be quite large.... I weigh about 190.
Disagree........to an extent. Adrenaline can be tamed. For example a prize fighter has less of an adrenaline rush during a bout, where as you or I would be shitting our boxers. A seasoned infantry Marine is more aware of his surroundings and is cooler under pressure in a fire fight than say a mechanic in the Air Force. We all know Cops train for high speed chases, but not frequently enough to make a difference. So in a police chase it would be all adrenaline.Clark W Griswald wrote:
Disagree. Car chases are all about adrenaline.SysTray wrote:
Well obesity affects you in everything you do. I wouldn't put it past some overweight people to not be able to drive for extended periods of time (such as a car chase) due to the fact that it tires them out.
Malloy must go
Yep, there should be minimal physical requirements to keep your job. Like the ones to GET THE JOB... I remember trying out for the CA highway patrol when I was about 20 and they had some basic physical fitness tests that I know vet cops can't pass..like 14 second 100 meter runs, push up/pull up standards, and many other things. Sure, they can do a 12 pound grip still (lots of hot dogs do that), but the point is to prevent use of force.
If you're fat lazy ass can't catch some highly sought after drug kingpin and you have to shoot because you can't pursue, then yes, you're a liability like the chief said in that article. Chasing people in cars and shooting is NOT law enforcement.
If you're fat lazy ass can't catch some highly sought after drug kingpin and you have to shoot because you can't pursue, then yes, you're a liability like the chief said in that article. Chasing people in cars and shooting is NOT law enforcement.
First of all:
The original poster does quote the fact that the department has standards for phisical fitness when HIRING the people. IMO the chief of police was not wrong when he asked his officers to MAINTAIN these standards. If the officers have had other reasons to complain, then that's all fair and good. But IMO the letter seems to have been aimed at providing the citizens, the officers ad their families with a better alternative.
Now if only EVERYONE was overweight, then the cops wouldn't have much of a problem. But as was stated earlier, if the perp has an advantage in physical fitness, then that means the cop will loose him in a chase (most likely), or have to resort to using his club or gun in a fight. If this can be avoided by a simple regimen of excercise, then I'm all for making this mandatory.
Not living in the US, I only see what I see when I visit, or watch TV from these areas. Someone posted earlier in this thread how he was amazed to see the fat guys on "cops" do all sorts of things. Let me say something to answer that. For one thing, being overweight, doesn't meanout of shape, lazy, or anything else. Obesity is a disease, but in fighting it, you can still BE overweight, while being reasonably fit, in good shape etc. etc. And in the case of "cops", often more fit than the perp. I'll admit that maybe 95% of obese people are NOT combating the disease, and are NOT getting enough exercise to maintian any kind of physical fitness level. And for that reason you WILL get shocked when you see how strong, or fast or fit a fat guy CAN be when you finally run into one. The downside is that the 5% (if it's even that many in the US), are probably not the cops.
Personally, I will feel protected by the cops regardless of weight. But only becuase they're many in numbers, usually armed, have huge cars, helicopters and a very good response to almost any threat. In short they have their training and education, and THATS what makes them cops. Not their physical fitness.
That being said, if I was a cop PERSONALLY, and I had a family to come home to, I would definately try to be as fit as possible, as strong as possible, as fast as possible, and in general try to increase my odds of comming home alive everyday, and being fit WILL do that, because it WILL give me the upper hand in most situations.
In my country, physical fitness is not a requirement for being a cop, however, if you fail your physical fitness test, you WILL be forced on a diet, daily training etc. and you will NOT be allowed to go patrol the streets, but get a deskjob instead. Due to unions and labor laws, firing a cop due to abesety can be hard, if not impossible. So in theory you could just get tied to a desk for the rest of your carrere, which would probably not progress all that much. But I have yet to meet a cop who didn't WANT to be fit. Sure we dont have a lot of lethal crime around here, and cops generally dont get shot at. I think in the last 40 years, we've had something like two copkillings in total (that I've heard of), so the problem of comming home alive might not be a big one here in my country. but in other places, like the US, mexico, south america, russia, parts of africa etc. it may be, and measures should be taken to ensure that you will get home alive every day. If being fit will help you attain that goal, you should do it.
That said, I dont want to FORCE anyone to be fit, it's really their choice, but maybe telling people of the consequences, and giving them good and attractive alternatives, they should seek to be fit by themselves.
The original poster does quote the fact that the department has standards for phisical fitness when HIRING the people. IMO the chief of police was not wrong when he asked his officers to MAINTAIN these standards. If the officers have had other reasons to complain, then that's all fair and good. But IMO the letter seems to have been aimed at providing the citizens, the officers ad their families with a better alternative.
Now if only EVERYONE was overweight, then the cops wouldn't have much of a problem. But as was stated earlier, if the perp has an advantage in physical fitness, then that means the cop will loose him in a chase (most likely), or have to resort to using his club or gun in a fight. If this can be avoided by a simple regimen of excercise, then I'm all for making this mandatory.
Not living in the US, I only see what I see when I visit, or watch TV from these areas. Someone posted earlier in this thread how he was amazed to see the fat guys on "cops" do all sorts of things. Let me say something to answer that. For one thing, being overweight, doesn't meanout of shape, lazy, or anything else. Obesity is a disease, but in fighting it, you can still BE overweight, while being reasonably fit, in good shape etc. etc. And in the case of "cops", often more fit than the perp. I'll admit that maybe 95% of obese people are NOT combating the disease, and are NOT getting enough exercise to maintian any kind of physical fitness level. And for that reason you WILL get shocked when you see how strong, or fast or fit a fat guy CAN be when you finally run into one. The downside is that the 5% (if it's even that many in the US), are probably not the cops.
Personally, I will feel protected by the cops regardless of weight. But only becuase they're many in numbers, usually armed, have huge cars, helicopters and a very good response to almost any threat. In short they have their training and education, and THATS what makes them cops. Not their physical fitness.
That being said, if I was a cop PERSONALLY, and I had a family to come home to, I would definately try to be as fit as possible, as strong as possible, as fast as possible, and in general try to increase my odds of comming home alive everyday, and being fit WILL do that, because it WILL give me the upper hand in most situations.
In my country, physical fitness is not a requirement for being a cop, however, if you fail your physical fitness test, you WILL be forced on a diet, daily training etc. and you will NOT be allowed to go patrol the streets, but get a deskjob instead. Due to unions and labor laws, firing a cop due to abesety can be hard, if not impossible. So in theory you could just get tied to a desk for the rest of your carrere, which would probably not progress all that much. But I have yet to meet a cop who didn't WANT to be fit. Sure we dont have a lot of lethal crime around here, and cops generally dont get shot at. I think in the last 40 years, we've had something like two copkillings in total (that I've heard of), so the problem of comming home alive might not be a big one here in my country. but in other places, like the US, mexico, south america, russia, parts of africa etc. it may be, and measures should be taken to ensure that you will get home alive every day. If being fit will help you attain that goal, you should do it.
That said, I dont want to FORCE anyone to be fit, it's really their choice, but maybe telling people of the consequences, and giving them good and attractive alternatives, they should seek to be fit by themselves.