FBI: 80 percent of police are overweight

I live across the street from a DeKalb police officer and he looks to be in good shape. It may be genetics because I recently saw his quite-fit mom chopping up a downed tree and toting it to the curb.

I looked for the study that makes the overweight police allegations but could not find it. If true, that is an amazing stat.

Police officers aren't the only folks buying bigger clothes, of course. According to the CDC , about 70 percent of Americans are overweight.

The CDC definition of overweight means having a Body Mass Index of 25 or higher, which isn't difficult with the number of delicious cheeseburgers and craft beers available.

Police in Garland, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, are working to improve officer fitness, but say the FBI stat does not apply to them.

“Do we have some [officers] that are overweight? Sure we do. But, not [80 percent],” said Garland police spokesperson Joe Harn.

The CBS article also says "law enforcement personnel are 25 times more likely to die from weight related cardiovascular disease than the actions of a criminal."

That may be true, but heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., not criminals.

Not yet anyway.

More news I stumbled across Friday: