The Associated Press
CLAYTON, N.C. (AP) - The Clayton Police Department might have found a different way to recruit new officers.
The department allows its officers to take a one-hour paid break to lift weights during their shift. It’s a bonus officers said helps them vent stress, while department leaders said it has cut down on sick time and workers compensation claims by improving the officers’ overall fitness.
The officers can go to the next-door Time Out Fitness Center - where gym owners comp membership dues to officers - for the hour as long as police duties are covered.
“This lets me blow off some steam,” said officer Andy Jernigan, a drug investigator who finished first in a power lifting competition at the Carolina Police and Firemen Olympics this year.
More than half the department’s 37 sworn officers take advantage of the perk, Lt. Wayne Bridges said. And department leaders say it represents an investment, with morale and productivity increasing.
“It’s hard to put a price tag on this,” Bridges said.
Town manager Steve Biggs said that in the two years the department made the paid exercise hour available to officers, workers compensation claims and sick days are down. It also was a selling point for Jernigan when he took the job two years ago after leaving the Johnston County sheriff’s department.
The biggest problem has been when police matters interrupt their workouts. When that happens, Detective Sgt. John Coley said, the officers have to find their uniforms and get dressed.
“Or sometimes, you just have to grab your credentials and go,” Jernigan said.