Police officers should ALL be in decent-to-great shape. Even those fat guys pushing paper may have to hit the streets again with budget cuts and short staffs. And the public image of fat cops is not good for any police department. Fat cops look ridiculous!

FOX40 News did a month-long investigation into obese officers:

http://www.fox40.com/news/headlines/ktxl-news-goodcopfatcop,0,5546852.story

When I was in the military and when I went through the police academy, the requirements were very stringent.

I find it simply asinine that public employees we pay very well are not required to meet minimum physical fitness requirements. I also dislike the fact that police officers want us to pay them to keep in shape.

This is what happens when unions are allowed to control elected officials. We end up with contracts that do not make common sense.

It might be that weight and physical condition standards are no longer allowed , because that would be discrimination these days?

In our Country we are all equal and the same. I am OFFENDED that the word "weight" was used in referencing another individual in conjunction with the words "standards". As a matter of fact I see no reason to refer to another individual as over weight,under weight or however one is perceived. I take issue that the subject of race,gender,creed or color is ever spoken of. While we are on the subject, why are we subscribing to an antiquated grading system in our schools? It is ridiculous and so discouraging to send your child to school only to have the childs tender feelings bruised and made to feel as if its (I feel "it" is a preferable reference as opposed to potentially prejudging the child based on their sex) performance is less than that of another childs. Regardless of performance or effort, all children should expect an A++. The benefit to children who would have traditionally been considered lazy or an underachiever is so much greater than singling out the select and few children traditionally considered "honor students. How can anyone dissagree that in modern society everyone has benefitted from the realization that there are no losers. We are are winners! I for one was so very proud when my young student came home with its first trophy. I asked why this high honor had been bestowed upon my student who was quite obviously so proud that it was obviously rendered nearly speachless! I will always remember the thrill when it answered "I dunno. Everyone in our class got one. I think its cuz we were in the 4th grade. Can I watch a video now?" So if that doesnt say it all I dont know what does. So there you are Mr.Knapp! How DARE you speak of minimum standards? We are all the same! How can you speak of standards when there are no standards? If you happen to think that you have possibly encountered someone who may be "special" you must at least pretend you didnt notice. If you encounter a person who is shaped differently than you or I then please smile but dont stare or make them uncomfotrable. Remember that they are a victim of a society that all but shoved a Big Mac, large Fries, Coke and a deep fried apple pie down their throat!

Fox 40 did a piece that was not balanced on cops and weight. They asked for all the height and weight of our officers for the police department and the sheriff's department. They then used the body mass index to decide whether officers were obese or not. The body mass index does not account for muscle mass. For instance, I am 5'4", 165 lb...I am certainly not in the shape I was at age 21 but I would not say I am even close to obese. In addition, the data provided to Fox 40 is based on what is on our ID cards which is only renewed every 5 years so the data was not even current. Fox 40 did not even get the info right on getting paid to workout. Our officers will start in July to get 2 hours a week on duty work out time but Fox 40 made it appear that we had been getting paid all this time to workout and we still weren't in shape. Fox 40 did say only 13% of those officers they received data from were out of shape but once again that is not accurate as we have many officers who lift weights and have hight muscle mass which makes them in a BMI level that appears on paper as being out of shape.

What Fox40 failed to report is that officers are just like everyone else in society who based on genetics, shift work, poor eating habits, stress, injuries etc do get overweight at times but we also have a lot of officers who participate in marathons, avid bicyclists, and running groups. The majority of our work force are in great shape. Of course we have a few officers out of shape but that's one of the reasons when we gave up our raise due to budget issues that we fought for on duty work out time starting in July. Many officers like myself work 60 plus hour weeks, find it difficult with 10 hour shifts and family obligations to fit in workouts. With two hours of on duty workout we hope that more officers will be able to get back into a constant routine of working out.

For many years officers have been taking a basic physical agility test but many officers have argued and we now will finally have some time to workout which is fair given that the community has an expectation that we stay in shape.

The entire piece that Fox40 did was based on a foot pursuit that an officer got into and lost the suspect. A witness stated the officer should have caught him. The factors Fox 40 and the witness did not consider was that an officer runs with a full duty belt that adds weight, has boots on not tennis shoes, is taught to slow down to clear corners, fences, and clear the car prior to running past the suspect vehicle which all slows down an officer chasing a suspect. By the way a gun magazine was found in the car so the officer has to slow his pursuilt a bit so he is not caught rounding a corner only to be shot by the suspect.

As far as comments regarding physical standards...those officers chosing to workout on duty will be taking a yearly physical agility test still. Our department encourages participation in various 5k fun runs and we always have a good showing for the CIM marathon. Just last year we had a 2 hours training on healthier eating and you will find the gyms at our police facilities utilized by a good amount of people. Hope the info helps to clarify some of the quesitons posed.