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Wisconsin Professional Police Association Assisting Marshfield Officer After Firing Due to Failing Some Training

Friday, February 14th, 2020 -- 12:42 PM

(WAOW) -30 seconds, that's how short Marshfield Police Officer Jared Beauchamp came up during a run as part of his required police training.

According to WAOW, Beauchamp is a 21-year veteran for the Marshfield Police Department. "He was fired not because he can't run but because he can't run as fast as some arbitrary time," said Jim Palmer, Executive Director for the Wisconsin Professional Police Association. After he failed, Officer Beauchamp was fired and now he and the state police union are fighting to get his job back. "He failed to pass a fitness test, not even the test in its entirety, only one component of it, his inability to pass this one portion of a larger test is due to an injury that he suffered in the line of duty several years ago," said Palmer. In a statement from the Marshfield Police Department, Chief Rick Gramza said, "our community needs all of our law enforcement officers to maintain a state of physical readiness by being able to meet the minimum physical standards required by the police department’s annual physical readiness test."

With WPPA standing right behind Beauchamp, Palmer said, "even if you look at some of the departments policies they have a whole set of policies that largely discourage officers to engage in foot pursuits, we believe these actions are grossly discriminatory and are in clear violation of state and federal law." The association filed a grievance over the firing of Officer Beauchamp in an effort to get him reinstated. In the same statement, Gramza went on to say, "our community expects us to run toward danger, to protect those in harm’s way, and to be physically ready to fulfill our responsibilities as guardians for our community." And if Officer Beauchamp isn't reinstated, the state union says they're prepared for litigation. The WPPA and Officer Beauchamp have a meeting scheduled with Marshfield’s Police Chief today and they’re hoping to resolve the issue.

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