Ok, here comes an entry that will probably put my butt into the fire, but I can guarantee this is a topic that has crossed the minds of MOST of us on this island at one point or another. The topic: Police Fitness.
This topic came to mind while I was driving down Pondfill road and had to stop at the roundabout for a pedestrian. The person crossing the street was a police officer coming from the police station. What really caught my attention was the sheer size of this officer. He was clearly obese. Well over 300lbs. This is not an exaggeration. The 1st thing that popped into my mind was: How could this guy chase down a criminal if need be? The cop is one of many I've seen on the force who are clearly not in top physical form. It also got me wondering about who's in charge of clearing these cops for duty? Is there a requirement? An exam? Do they have to run a 12 minute mile? Do 50 sit ups in under a minute? 50 pull ups in under 2 minutes? Clearly not. Is there a physician that has to sign off on a form to clear officers for active duty?
Not 5 minutes after seeing this cop I caught sight of the new recruits running along the side of the road, their commander shouting at them to keep pace with each other. What a contradiction of terms!
I mentioned the overweight cop to a friend of mine who casually remarked 'Well maybe he sits at a desk.' I thought about that for a minute and realized it doesn't excuse the clearly unhealthy situation. So what if he sits at a desk? Shouldn't he be setting an example? And I have seen plenty of other cops out on the road, doing road controls & whatnot whoa re clearly not in their physical prime. Think about it...A robbery occurs and the suspects are on foot. Who's going to give chase? An obese cop who'll end up having a heart attack after twenty paces? We've all seen examples of this as we pass through countless road controls or even coming out of the airport/customs. And to be fair, it's not just the cops. I've seen fat customs agents, immigration officials and even security guards. You think the overweight security guard standing watch at the bank after hours is going to be able to run down a thief that just stole your money?
Myself and friend witness another overweight cop struggling to make his way up the stairs at an establishment. No more than 2 flights of stairs and the cop was clearly winded at the top. He stood, stooped over, obviously trying to catch his breath. Shameful. It's quite obvious that health & weight issues are running rampant throughout the police force. Men & women alike are grossly overweight and this had a direct effect on their performance. Just because you're not a cop in the field doesn't mean you can be 5 feet 9 inches and weight in excess of 200lbs! It's a liability! Many of the cops are strokes & heart attacks just waiting to happen.
Look, I'm no super model. I'll be the first to admit that. I've had jobs that required a particular level of physical ability. When my physical health began to decline I changed careers, understanding when I was no longer capable of performing to the best of my abilities. Certainly my performance does not have a huge impact on other people's lives. I'm not involved in high stress, physically demanding situations.
Think about it. How safe & secure would you feel if you found yourself in a life & death situation and the time it took to respond to your situation was in direct association to the health of the cop? Would you want a cop in his/her physical prime or an overweight cop that could barely pull himself/herself from the responding vehicle? Imagine your house gets robbed and the responding officer is out of breath just climbing the stairs of your front porch. There's that stray thought in the back of your head that you might have to save the cop & give him/her CPR.
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