Since the dawn of the doughnut, portly police have been the brunt of jokes and jibes, their soft waistlines and predilection for pastries best lampooned in the poster-boy image of Clancy Wiggum, Springfield's inept chief from TV's The Simpsons .
But in a city where many gang members have recently embraced martial arts, police fitness could be a matter of survival, according to the city's police union, which this week launched a controversial push to have the city pay officers for pumping iron.
"More and more, the gang members are working out in the gym, getting bigger, stronger, faster," said Mike Sutherland, president of the Winnipeg Police Association. "When you're fighting back, you hope you are fit and up to the task, especially if you're fighting someone who has spent a lot of time working out while they were in custody."
It's safe to say that the Wiggums of the world wouldn't last long on the Winnipeg beat. The city tops the country for murders and auto thefts on a per capita basis. Last year, Maclean's magazine ranked it the second-most dangerous city in the country after Saskatoon.
Recently, the job has become even more perilous.
"We have well-known gang members that are training at martial-arts gyms throughout the city on an almost-daily basis," he said, referring to a host of clubs that teach techniques employed by Ultimate Fighting Championship stars to break bones and tenderize faces.
Mr. Sutherland is proposing that every officer take upward of 40 minutes a shift to work out. The city would pay for 20 minutes. Officers would donate the other half.
So far, Winnipeg's police chief seems reluctant to go along with the plan. In a press conference on Wednesday, he said he'd rather see police fighting crime than lifting weights.
"We want to be physically fit and we encourage that, but our main job as police officers is to be able to provide the services necessary for the citizens we serve," Keith McCaskill said, who added that it was a matter best addressed by collective bargaining teams.
The chief also stressed that the force lacks the funds to backfill the three or more cars that such a program would remove from the streets.
The city maintains nine fitness facilities for officers throughout the city and provides free gym passes. It has also administered a mandatory fitness test since 1989. Around 1,030 of the force's 1,300 officers took the test last year. More than 900 passed, according to Mr. Sutherland.
All police who fail the test forfeit the opportunity for promotions and certain pay hikes.
In several other jurisdictions, including Calgary and Victoria, officers who clock 12-hour shifts get as much as one hour to work out. "We were worried that, with our membership working longer shifts, fitness would go by the wayside," said Calgary Police Superintendent Richard Hinse. "So we struck a gentleman's agreement."
"This was a made-in-Calgary solution. Ultimately, Winnipeg will have to come up with a made-in-Winnipeg solution."