New
police chief: City's finest not the fittest
by
Bill Donovan
Staff Writer
GALLUP — If there's one thing you can say about the Gallup
police department, it's that it is not a lean, mean fighting machine.
In the first place, mean is out as both City Manager Eric Honeyfield
and Chief Sylvester Stanley say one of their top priorities is to establish
relations between
police officers and Gallup residents.
And, unfortunately, said Stanley, lean is not a word that he would use to describe
many of the police officers who now serve in the department.
"Officers are required before they are hired to pass a physical fitness
test, but none after that," Stanley said.
In fact, in his 30 years in law enforcement, Stanley said he was required to
take annual physical fitness tests only during one period and that was when
he was in the military.
Since there are no annual exams, Stanley said it's up to each individual officer
to decide just what kind of shape they are in and he feels that there may be
some in the department who are not making that their top priority.
The problems this causes are obvious.
Criminals may escape if they figure they can outrun an officer. And even officers
who spend most of their time behind a desk doing administrative work may find
themselves assigned to the streets in an emergency, so they can't even use
that as an excuse for not being in shape, said Stanley.
He also pointed out that being a police officer is one of the most stressful
jobs around and carrying on too many extra pounds only adds to the stress level.
So he has decided that he will make a major effort in the coming months to
make the department a little leaner.
He can't impose guidelines and mandate that overweight officers go on a diet
- it's not part of the union contract recently signed by the city - but he
said he can and will set up an incentive program to encourage officers to get
in better
shape.
Exactly how that incentive program will work is still in the planning stages
but one thing he does plan to do is create awards that will be given out at
the annual police banquet for the officers who are most fit.
"I will set the example," Stanley said, pointing out that he could
lose a few pounds and plans to spend more time in the department's weight room
in the future.
He also plans to play more racquetball and encourage his officers to take up
that kind of activity in their spare time.
He's also a major advocate of having his officers participate in competition
with other police departments as happened recently when he took several people
in the department to Tucson to compete in the 26th annual Arizona Police and
Fire Games (see sidebar).
At one time New Mexico had its own police olympics but it hasn't been held
for the past several years.
"I know about the New Mexico Olympics because I was the coordinator of it
the last year it was held," said Stanley, who added that putting the event
on takes a lot of time and no one could be found who would put in all of the
time.
|
Thursday
April 22, 2004
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New
police chief: City's finest not the fittest
Death |
