# why are so many American police officers so hillbilly? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 10, 2016, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-american-police-officers-so-hillbilly/756982 "2016-06-10T00:29:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-american-police-officers-so-hillbilly/756982/21 "2016-06-10T12:58:00Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > I blame guns. > > If American cops had to run to catch a criminal instead of shooting them from their cruiser, they’d be in better shape. Hey, that’s just efficiency. Bullets run a lot faster than any cop I’ve ever met. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-american-police-officers-so-hillbilly/756982/22 "2016-06-10T14:09:09Z")
Most of your examples (first and third) are Texas Dept. of Public Safety State Troopers. That cowboy hat and western-ish outfit is their official uniform. For counter-examples of Texas cops that don’t look hillbilly-ish, here you go: [Houston Cops](http://www.houstoncit.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Knoxville-Site-Visit-Group-Pix-e1409834142607.jpg) [More Houston cops](https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjEgN-2zp3NAhWIVz4KHYfgCIwQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.chron.com%2Fhurricanes%2F2008%2F10%2Flarry-carwell-houston-police-officer%2F&psig=AFQjCNFkuo9sXsbi1QERipGne96xhE3rBw&ust=1465653237559159)[Dallas cops](http://lakehighlands.advocatemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/cops-with-ice.jpg) One thing to remember is that a LOT of US cops wear lightweight body armor when on patrol, and this makes them have a more… rotund look than they probably really have. I’m guessing that’s what’s going on with the women cops in the last photo. Plus… if anything, US cops are prone to looking too martial, instead of too hillbilly, I’d say. And then finally, there’s[this European cop to provide a counterpoint](https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiwurOI0Z3NAhWCaD4KHQJXAI0QjRwIBw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fpin%2F481885228858013540%2F&psig=AFQjCNH26Zp6d33pEPMoSDqJDfCzhQkFow&ust=1465654074694936)… ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-american-police-officers-so-hillbilly/756982/23 "2016-06-10T14:23:24Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Why are so many American police officers Asian? > > [https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ae/99/54/ae9954747aa4f08455589435a71369c0.jpg](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ae/99/54/ae9954747aa4f08455589435a71369c0.jpg) > > [https://media2.wnyc.org/i/800/0/l/80/1/ASIAN-AMERICAN-OFFICERS.jpg](https://media2.wnyc.org/i/800/0/l/80/1/ASIAN-AMERICAN-OFFICERS.jpg) > > [http://goldsea.com/Personalities2/Tomart/art4.jpg](http://goldsea.com/Personalities2/Tomart/art4.jpg) Don’t forget this one… [http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160610/44b2a0514d33359ec058262e963a1b5b.jpg](http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160610/44b2a0514d33359ec058262e963a1b5b.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-american-police-officers-so-hillbilly/756982/24 "2016-06-10T14:35:23Z")
What’s the deal with all the [blind cops](https://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-eac66882565a20d15682a1e30f9342f0?convert_to_webp=true) [in the](http://c8.alamy.com/comp/B54D90/american-cop-wearing-a-pair-of-ray-ban-sunglasses-B54D90.jpg) [US](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/65/6b/1f/656b1ff3e8447cda2cadb322e334255c.jpg)? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-american-police-officers-so-hillbilly/756982/25 "2016-06-10T16:20:50Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > There’s nothing hillbilly about [this.](http://i0.wp.com/tvseriesfinale.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/chips.jpg) How about [this](https://eatwithfatjoe.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/barney-fife-andy-taylor.jpg)? Or[this](http://img.ifcdn.com/images/7b2bdfb160e8e0a1abe86a853ba4872abd3b60ed9a0521ef79c7d9af28d9cf12_1.jpg)? And you just watch your step in this part of [nath Caralina](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar6KVPrFOzY). ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-american-police-officers-so-hillbilly/756982/26 "2016-06-10T17:31:13Z")
I sat in a pedestrian mall in Darwin, and watched Australian cops dispersing a group of aborigines, and I was struck by how amazingly they looked like Ameriacn cops or deputy sheriffs, way overweight with the same swagger and brush-cut. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-american-police-officers-so-hillbilly/756982/27 "2016-06-10T20:22:34Z")
[Reno cop.](http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/reno911/images/7/75/Dangle.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20090314230151) Not hillbilly. A bit white trash maybe. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-american-police-officers-so-hillbilly/756982/28 "2016-06-10T21:06:07Z")
> [@sweat209](#): > > Why is that? Why are police officers better looking in Europe? Less hillbilly looking? eat less? Only one or two times a day? Walk lot more than drive to work or the store? American police eat more???:eek: I’ll make a sweeping generalization and say that European people in general are thinner than American people in general. And by definitely less hillbilly. ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-american-police-officers-so-hillbilly/756982/29 "2016-06-11T01:29:44Z")
> [@](#): > > Police officers, firefighters and security guards have the highest rates of obesity of all professions, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. > > According to the Journal, 40.7% of police, firefighters and security guards are obese. Other jobs with high obesity rates include clergy, engineers and truckers. Why is that? Is it culture? They like to eats lots? Like to eat 4 times a day? Like to have lot of junk food or fast food all the time? ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-american-police-officers-so-hillbilly/756982/30 "2016-06-11T01:47:46Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > I’ll make a sweeping generalization and say that European people in general are thinner than American people in general. And by definitely less hillbilly. It is no mystery that most Americans are overweight that the culture will not snowball onto the police. UK may be not so bad like the US but they are starting to get overweight the people and the police in the UK. If you take out European people out side of UK people they are lot smaller. Every European I talk to they are really shocked at the amount of food we put on the plate. You go to a fast food place in the US you can easy take in 600 calories or more. You go to say McDonald’s and have big mac and the drinks and dessert that well over 1,000 calories. Some people may not get any where close to that amount of calories adding breakfast and lunch on a normal diet size. That you eat at one go at McDonalds. One plate serving can easy be two plate servings in Europe eating at two different times in day. If you eat you normal three times day. If they are eating 600 or 1,000 calories per meal that is lot of calories. If they eat 3 to 4 times a day. Even 2 times a day it is lot of calories. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-american-police-officers-so-hillbilly/756982/31 "2016-06-11T01:51:43Z")
Fat people! Amirite? ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-american-police-officers-so-hillbilly/756982/32 "2016-06-11T01:52:13Z")
Former Arlington Texas police officer: [![](http://www.muskimagazin.rs/chest/images/top%2010%20bodibildera/muski-magazin-bodibilderi-ronnie-coleman-190.jpg) ](http://www.muskimagazin.rs/chest/images/top%2010%20bodibildera/muski-magazin-bodibilderi-ronnie-coleman-190.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-american-police-officers-so-hillbilly/756982/33 "2016-06-11T01:54:43Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Fat people! Amirite? There was web site showing the most and least fat people by city. I will have to find it but Dallas and Houston was high on the list. By nation what is it one in three are overweight? ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-american-police-officers-so-hillbilly/756982/34 "2016-06-11T02:00:27Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Former Arlington Texas police officer: > [http://www.muskimagazin.rs/chest/images/top%2010%20bodibildera/muski-magazin-bodibilderi-ronnie-coleman-190.jpg](http://www.muskimagazin.rs/chest/images/top%2010%20bodibildera/muski-magazin-bodibilderi-ronnie-coleman-190.jpg) Why don’t you just roll with more officers to Hot calls than bulking up or use the taser or get some MMA training? If you get bar fight, street fight or a family violence call with some drunks fighting. Send 4 or 5 officers than two big officers? ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-american-police-officers-so-hillbilly/756982/35 "2016-06-11T04:19:31Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > [Reno cop.](http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/reno911/images/7/75/Dangle.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20090314230151) Not hillbilly. A bit white trash maybe. 🙂 Unless we’re talking tightie whities here, how do your balls not fall out of shorts like that? Inquiring minds. And I like how are OP does selective answering. That’s cute. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-american-police-officers-so-hillbilly/756982/36 "2016-06-11T04:59:27Z")
Actually there was only like one fat cop in two of the pictures the OP posted and a lot of lean cops in the pictures too. In a society and increasingly a world where obesity is becoming obese its not surprising. Add on that people who sit in a car a lot of the time, get fast food a lot for convenience sake, and often work night shifts which fucks with the body’s natural circadian rhythm and contributes to obesity its not really a surprise. Not sure about the hillbilly thing, what are your parameters for hillbilly? Lumpy white guy held together by doughnut batter? ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-american-police-officers-so-hillbilly/756982/37 "2016-06-11T07:30:35Z")
> [@faithfool](#): > > Unless we’re talking tightie whities here, how do your balls not fall out of shorts like that? Inquiring minds. > > And I like how are OP does selective answering. That’s cute. that’s a pic of Tom Lennon, playing “Officer Jim Dangle” on the show _Reno 911._ The shorts were basically part of the joke. [http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0017348/](http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0017348/) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-american-police-officers-so-hillbilly/756982/38 "2016-06-11T11:52:13Z")
> [@sweat209](#): > > Why don’t you just roll with more officers to Hot calls than bulking up or use the taser or get some MMA training? If you get bar fight, street fight or a family violence call with some drunks fighting. Send 4 or 5 officers than two big officers? Economics 101. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-american-police-officers-so-hillbilly/756982/39 "2016-06-11T12:31:51Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > that’s a pic of Tom Lennon, playing “Officer Jim Dangle” on the show _Reno 911._ The shorts were basically part of the joke. > > [http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0017348/](http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0017348/) And I see my joke fell flat. Gah. But yah, I know. I’ll try harder at this funny thing next time. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-american-police-officers-so-hillbilly/756982/40 "2016-06-13T23:32:59Z")
> [@pool](#): > > Not sure about the hillbilly thing, what are your parameters for hillbilly? Lumpy white guy held together by doughnut batter? Hee. Chicken-fried lumpy white guy works too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-american-police-officers-so-hillbilly/756982.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-american-police-officers-so-hillbilly/756982.md?page=3)