Imagine calling for help and the officer who shows up is less able to defend themselves than you are. Next thing you know that officer pulls out a gun and begins shooting putting everyone in danger. What’s too small and for that matter whats too big? Does size have anything to do with officers who kill?
Deadly force is justified if the officer reasonably believed at that moment that he or others were in imminent danger, and it doesn’t matter whether any danger actually existed.
When we make guns the equalizers among police we raise the chance of death being the outcome.
What do you think, has the hiring of smaller and less psychically fit officers put the public in more danger?
There is evidence female police officers help stop police brutality
The fact some police agencies don’t use any physical tests adds to the question whether physical tests of any type are predictive of officer performance.
No matter how big and strong you are, there’s always going to be a bigger, stronger bad guy. That’s why officers are trained to use their intelligence, verbal judo, defensive tactics, OC spray, ASP baton, TASER, and firearm.
Then why if so many options they often go directly to deadly force?
Without question, there are too many out-of-shape cops working. Cops usually have to be in pretty good shape to get hired and complete the police academy (although there are exceptions even to that), but in most agencies, they never have to demonstrate any level of physical fitness again.
When agencies do try to implement a fitness program, there is usually push back from the police union, whose more senior members–and maybe some junior ones–are out of shape and don’t want to be forced to fix the problem. Some of those cops have health or injury problems so severe that they can’t fix their level of fitness, so a fitness requirement would render them unemployed.
“Many officers take their physical condition for granted until it is muchtoo late. Every year more officers die from heart attacks or diseases related to the degradation of the body than all those who die from violent attacks and traffic accidents combined. Even more officers are forced to retire early because of similar conditions”
Recent studies indicate officers who are in good physical condition are involved in far fewer uses of force than other, less fit officers.
“He’s 295 to 300 pounds. That’s a large man’’. “Can someone that size overpower you and take your weapon? Those are the sorts of things you have to look at in terms of threats coming from things other than weapons.”
The Los Angeles Police Commission on abolished a requirement that officers stand at least 5 feet tall to join the LAPD.
Department officials requested that the minimum height requirement be eliminated, saying they have found no evidence that shorter people were less capable of performing the duties of a police officer.
Furthermore, they said such a requirement exposed the department to potential lawsuits from candidates who were rejected solely because of their height.
Commissioners asked Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams if shorter officers had a greater tendency to rely on their weapons than taller officers, and the chief assured them there was no evidence to support such a theory.
NEW STORIES
Does Size Matter? Short and Tall Officers Policing the Streets
How more female police officers would help stop police brutality
Why isn’t physical fitness mandatory for police officers?
Physical fitness double standards for male and female cops?
Minimum Height Rule for LAPD Officers Eliminated
Current law gives police wide latitude to use deadly force
The Controversial “Rule” Police Rely on to Shoot and Kill Supsects
Police Interview Newsletter – Physical Fitness Matters
There is still no agreement on what it takes physically to be a cop — or what standards predict success
If it’s not about size could it be something else?
Killers Among Us
The term psychopath conjures up images of movies such as Psycho or Silence of the Lambs. There are less inflammatory terms such as sociopath, antisocial personality type or under controlled personality type that apply to the same people. The meanings of these terms have changed and interchanged over the last half-century. Psychopath is now associated almost exclusively with violent actions rather than a propensity for violence.9 The last three terms are still used somewhat interchangeably to denote someone who lacks social emotions and often resorts to violence, deception or manipulation as a means to get what he wants. These people constitute 3 to 4 percent of the male population and 1 percent of the female.10 Such people who enter the military are not monsters waiting to be released. They can be level-headed, productive soldiers, and if put into the right situation, they will kill the enemy aggressively and without remorse. If these soldiers are in our units, how can we identify them? More on this
Two female police officers can’t handle one male suspect
Our courts are putting overweight police back on the job, are they putting the public in danger?
Female officer kicks man in the head while six officers hold the man down
