Back in April of 2022, the Texas Department of Public Safety implemented a new policy for officer fitness.

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It was announced that would require male troopers to have a waistline of no more than forty inches.

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For female troopers, the limit was set at thirty-five inches.

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When this policy was announced, troopers with bigger waistlines were told that they had until the end of the year to get into shape…or face “consequences”.

Those consequences could range from being denied promotions to being given a desk job…or even termination.

Somebody came up with a suspiciously round figure (pun intended) that there were 200 troopers who needed to trim down. Whose job was it to know the pants size of all the Texas Patrolmen/women?

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We don’t know the answer to that but we DO know that Texas DPS backed off their requirements…by exactly one inch.

In August it was reported that men could go as broad as 41 inches and women had 36 inches to work with.

Good luck finding a size 41 in the men’s department at Burlington Coat Factory.

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Well, the New Year has come but we don’t have any update on the 200 chubby members of the state Highway Patrol.

Did they manage to get those waistlines down in time?

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Would it count if you were really a 42 but just SQUEEZED into a 40?'

Seriously, I can’t find any update on whether they followed through with the disciplinary threats against those tubbier Troopers.

Texas isn’t the only state that has a weight/pant size limit for State Troopers. For starters, EVERY state has a standard “fitness and preparedness” requirement.

In 2009, state troopers in Ohio got their union involved to fight back against weight requirements.

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If you asked me (which, granted, nobody did) I’d say that most of a Highway Patrolman’s job is sitting: either in a parked car or a moving car.

Once they’ve put in their day's work which, again, is mostly sitting…they should get paid overtime to hit the treadmill or stair-climber.

 

 

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