Occupational police tests described in the literature can serve as indicators of the occupational performance of their employees. In addition, practitioners in charge of police training should develop and employ obstacle courses composed of critical work tasks, as they may be strongly related to tests of aerobic endurance, strength, muscular endurance, and agility.
While no recruitment process will ever be perfect, it is time to address the “legal defensibility” of physical employment standards as the primary consideration in developing recruitment guidelines that are concurrently designed to increase workplace diversity.
This article is a personal perspective of creating and providing a fitness assessment and resistance training program from scratch to a large law enforcement organization.
TSAC FacilitatorsProgram designTesting and Evaluation
Those who are in key decision-making positions should understand the importance of proper research, validation, and implementation procedures when developing physical fitness standards.
Most law enforcement officers are physically taxed, mentally exhausted, and emotionally overwhelmed. As such, a complexity exists with a requirement to match the need for physical fitness in a demographic that lives their lives in a potential state of general exhaustion.
Fitness testing uses a battery of protocols recognized by the scientific community as both reliable and valid, and it measures important fitness constructs such as aerobic endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, power, agility, flexibility, and balance.
High standards improve the quality of professionals working within the fitness industry. This article provides steps that may help to increase income for personal trainers.
Because fitness test results are part of performance evaluations, smaller service members have an advantage in terms of attaining promotions, despite evidence that suggests that greater body size, strength, power, and load carrying capacity is correlated with tactical performance.