Fat policemen

[SirBragalot]

AIBU to think that anyone who joins the police force should be fighting fit?
Last weekend I was walking home from shopping when a skinny guy whizzed past me at lightning speed. He was obviously running from someone. I turned around and saw two policemen chasing after him. Both of them were overweight. They were struggling to keep up and were out of breath. So I thought, good luck with catching skinny! It was not the first time I saw policemen carrying extra weight. What is going on? How are they supposed to catch up with members of the criminal underworld who are usually skinny, fit and run like cheetahs?

My last fitness test was nearly 16 years ago!

I’m fitter now than I was then.

Also, not all criminals are skinny, wtf. I used to work for a criminal defence firm and we had some very fat clients.

Don't forget fat bashing understandmenow

Times change, more police in cars, c
Very few on foot

That's very true. We used to put out about 8 boatmen per shift now were lucky if we can crew the cars.

A friend of mine was a beat cop covering quite a large area and shopping centre. When she retired she piled weight on. Her eating never increased but she went from walking an entire shift complete with all her equipment to a very sedentary life.

I am overweight but can run faster and for longer than many of my slimmer friends (only cos they aren't into it but even then just saying larger people can run!)

Don't you have to do fitness tests to join the police?

Yes, but it's been watered down over the years.

To those who say you don’t believe it happened...to be honest it looked kinda comical. Like a scene out of a Simon Pegg movie. Skinny man running like maniac and two well-fed uniforms running after him.

Being on drugs makes you skinny. Reassuringly, it also makes you stupid.

I'm ambivalent about corpulent bobbies but the title of this thread just made me laugh for some reason

Neither makes you skinny or stupid actually @Hopeisnotastrategy

Have you looked at the stats for IQ score and drug / alcohol Abusers? About 50% more likely to abuse drugs if you have a high IQ. Massive correlation. Like you might be too clever to deal with the drudgery of normal life and seek a hit?

I blame the media, now they're all sat in their cars pigging bloody Haribo!

If you haven't caught him in the first 10m chances are you never will

Bear in mind the average criminal is under 25 dressed in trainers and tracky bottoms and did not get up at 5am for an hour long commute.
They also don't carry several kg of kit about their body.

The way to catch them is numbers, flood the area if you can, get a dog if one is on duty and a helicopter if it's serious enough and the weather is favourable.

There is an annual fitness test but it is watered down from days of yore unless you are in a specialist role.

Most cops are physically fit, if just for their own sake, not the job.

Finally you must remember that the desire to escape will always be greater than the desire to capture.

I applied to join the police in 1980, and was turned down at the medical for being too thin (I was skinny). The upshot of recruiting 'beefier' people is that they tend to put on weight more easily when they get older.

Op is an idiot

Sickandtired1
And you must be a fat policeman/woman

Personally I’d prioritise many other attributes for policemen/women over the speed they can run on the off chance they had to chase some skinny drugged up crim on speed. I’d rather they had good interpersonal skills, compassion, intelligence etc

Also size does not necessarily equate to running ability. I’m not overweight And relatively fit but anyone over the age of 2 can probably run faster than me. I’m not actually sure my running speed is quicker than my fast walk. I just can’t seem to run (also can’t jump more than a couple of inches off the floor! - even A trampoline manages to solicit little more than half a foot from my obviously not very springy legs). I’d love to know why. I can remember having a massive disagreement with my PT who refused to believe I couldn’t jump onto a box with both feet.