Non joke answer: A bunch of reasons. Many precincts are understaffed, so they need all the hands they can get. The police union is huge and makes it extremely difficult to fire even the most homer-simpsonian individuals. Many of the hugely obese cops are assigned to "light duty" meaning the most exertion they face is paperwork, manning the public information desk and or doing things like serving writs (in some cases you're allowed to wear the uniformn even if you're not a bonded officer, which is absurd). Additionally, fitness requirements are actually fairly rare across the whole spectrum of law enforcement - It's surprisingly rare to see them for any positions besides uniformed patrol officer, even detectives or etc. aren't always required to pass them - and even when you do, they're usually pathetically easy to pass.
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to give an answer to a rhetorical question: because firing people based on weight is a can of worms being opened. while it's still technically not illegal to fire someone because their weight makes them "unfit," the ada can be invoked if said obesity is caused by a disorder (e.g., type 1 diabetes). this ignores the fact that it's hard to prove that someone would be unfit just for their weight; it just opens up employers to lawsuits. a simpler way to think about it would be to ask yourself if the guy handing out speeding tickets is "unfit for duty" solely because he's obese.
The easy way around this is to require passing regular fitness tests. If your obesity isn't an impediment to the fitness test, then it shouldn't be an impediment to your job.
Kind of an over simplification. Yeah, cops should ideally be fit-ish but even an obese person with a gun or a tazer can protect people, maybe not as well but still, and that doesn't take into account the fact that a lot of cops are not actually on the streets but rather in an office doing paperwork etc. The problems are:
- There are maybe not enough cops that are fit for actual fights?
- Cops are ridiculously undertrained and unfiltered, giving us all if these assholes that really just like power.
They just need to be able to drive a car and pull the trigger on their gun
Cops don't exist to protect you and they don't have to be physically fit to serve their purpose: using the threat of violence and the prison industrial complex to protect the interests of capital.
Just as well as any other cop
I believe that they are not allowed. Some of them just are.
The point is to punish, not to protect. Fatasses can punish just fine.
Fatasses can punish just fine.
Not when everybody can run circles around them and run away at the same time....
That's why they are armed like they go to a war zone. Don't need to be fast off you have weaponry which has more reach than even the fittest guy can run before they pull the trigger. Survival of the suspect is optional.
I mean, where are they? Most cops I've seen personally wouldn't even qualify as regular obese, let alone morbidly.
In a small Midwest town, if the police force has more than 3 members, I bet half of them are classified as obese.
I totally agree with your thought here, I've thought the same thing many times. I've see many very overweight cops stopping at gas stations and whatnot.
How can these guys chase down an assailant? Cops should be required to be fit. I'd say they need to prove weekly they can run a mile in like 8mins? Faster? Then, once per month they need to prove they can do a 5 mile, like 45-50 mins? Seems fair.
Police departments in general have severe problems, but I encounter police often in my work and can honestly say I've never encountered an officer for my city's dept who'd qualify as morbidly obese
Beyond what others have said, different departments have different policies. They're usually pretty similar to each other, but a lot don't explicitly lay out fitness requirements.
By being racist?
Don't live there, but I think something to do with Dunkin Donuts