 Well, if you ever need the help of law enforcement, you would want them to be in shape, right? Well, Haiti Clotter tells us how Clearwater County is putting officers to the test. An officer may be driving around in his squad car for a few hours, and the next minute, he's on foot in a pursuit. Anything can happen. The Clearwater County Sheriff decided to do something about it since being elected in 2015. We're hoping that this will, you know, get the deputies exercising a little bit more and make them healthier. And also it's a responsibility, I feel, that we have to the people that we protect and serve, that when we show up on a call, we should be able to physically do the job. According to Sheriff Darren Halverson, the physical fitness standard is another way to improve operations at the Sheriff's office. The yearly standard will be based on age and gender, and will begin this fall. The tests will include activities such as push-ups, sit-ups, and a mile run. We'll see how this goes this fall. We're kind of thinking maybe, you know, we'd like to look at an obstacle course type thing to down the road, you know, try to do things that are more practical to our job, things that we might run into. Any officer struggling in a certain area can look forward to next year to make improvements. The mile run is based on time, you know, how you do it, and we have it based on a scale from 50% to 100% and the different time brackets that you can make. After his or her initial hire, most officers are required to undergo fitness testing, but this standard will benefit the department and community. Let's say there's a medical and someone needs help with something, I want to make sure that our people are up to the task of being able to physically do that. Research began last year and the Sheriff's office spoke to other agencies to get their feedback. Chief Deputy Ryan Soli also gave input to set the standard. He's already preparing for the test. We have gym memberships that we offer out there in the community, and then a lot of us have already started partaking in 5K and 10K runs for fundraisers. The plan for now is to use the high school to conduct the fitness test. In Bagley, Haiti-Claude, Lakeland News. 10 officers, including Sheriff Halverson, will participate in the physical fitness standard. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.