Obesity in the United States Essay

Submitted By Jariquin
Words: 567
Pages: 3

Colton Pipes Page 1
Haley Chow
Honors English 10 A
21 October, 2014
Expository Essay

In a job where you need to be physically fit to successfully do any task required to do your job, obesity is a problem. This is a major problem in today’s police force all across America including other countries as well. Over eighty percent of employees in the police force are overweight, and not with muscle. This is a very pressing problem that many are not aware of. Employees that are 30 pounds overweight are recognized as disabled. The factors of this are their height, age, and sex.
The reason that many police officers are overweight is because of their long hours of sitting in a car and lack of dieting. Officers work 12 hour days on average, so it is easy to make excuses not to go to the gym because of fatigue or lack of sleep. Lack of sleep is also a problem that factors in with the fatigue that causes them not to have energy to go exercise, and this is because the average officer gets four to five hours of sleep a night.
Being overweight in the Law Enforcement field doesn’t only cause you to not to do well as an officer, but it is also very hazardous to your health. Past Research has shown that Law Enforcement personnel are twenty five times more likely to die from weight related disorders such as cardiovascular disease rather than out in the field. This is because of the officer sitting in the car or at their desk all day long. Some departments, like Dallas, are trying to help solve the problem by having an hour during the day that the officers can exercise at on site gyms while staying on the clock, so that the officers can’t say they don’t have an excuse.
If out in the field, on a chase, or in a gunfight, obesity can only hinder the officer from fulfilling his duties. Not only that, but it can cause risk to the comrades relying on their partners to be able to do the task given. Police