Physical fitness test

[winn99]

Hey guys and gals I need your help with something. My department has put together a small committee to address issues with our current physical fitness program, which I am part of. We have our first meeting soon and I am need of some suggestions.

Currently, we are required to complete a physical fitness program every 6 months. Every sworn officer at the department is required to participate including admin. We have a 1.5 mile run, 300 meter run, minimum push ups, minimum sit ups, and a minimum weight that you have to bench press. The minimum requirements to pass all of these are based on age/gender and are very easily passed compared to some other department's physical fitness requirements. There are four grading levels; fail, pass, 50%, and merit.

I am no fitness guru but do maintain my physical fitness and believe it is important for officer safety and part of a professional look. Our former chief mostly removed all of the punishments for failing the test and there are a few officers who fail without repercussion but also many who merit without any incentive besides maybe a small trophy at an awards banquet.

So, with all that being said we are trying to come up with things that will motivate officers to maintain their physical fitness and do well on the PT test, incentives, punishments, etc... I don't believe the admin is opposed to changing up the test but definitely want to keep some form of a PT test in place so any suggestions on different type of tests are greatly appreciated as well. Thanks for any help!

[E. Tackleberry]

Physical fitness is a big part of officer and public safety. I think u should drop the sit-ups and add pull-ups! Everyone can do sit-ups with little training. A pull-up require the person to be at a reasonable weight! Women can do pull-ups horizontal, and u can choose angle to ajust difficulty level.

As far as punishment what options are open? Pay cut, mandatory work outs or less favorable duties. Incentives longer life;-)

[winn99]

Physical fitness is a big part of officer and public safety. I think u should drop the sit-ups and add pull-ups! Everyone can do sit-ups with little training. A pull-up require the person to be at a reasonable weight! Women can do pull-ups horizontal, and u can choose angle to ajust difficulty level.

As far as punishment what options are open? Pay cut, mandatory work outs or less favorable duties. Incentives longer life;-)

I agree, pull-ups are great. I believe one pull-up would give alot of people trouble in all honesty. As far as punishment I don't believe pay cuts or demotions would be a viable option. I was thinking more along the lines of no lateral moves or promotions such as if you fail two PT tests in a row you won't be eligible to transfer to another division or promote until you can pass two tests in a row. Also, I think if you are on nights and can't pass the PT test then you won't have the eligibility to go to days if an opening comes available.

[hemicop]

IIRC, if you're going to require a certain level of physical conditioning, you have to provide time for them to do it. You'll catch more flies with suagar (also manure!) than vinegar, so I'm not certain disciplinary action will work except for the most ardent "lounge lizard". My recommendation would be to offer pay or vacation time incentives for Officers that can MAINTAIN a certain level of conditioning and award it annually or every 2 years or so. To my way of thinking, that'll induce motivation, require consistent conditioning, minimally increase budget output and allow the "slugs" a taregt & time to get in shape for.
Now for the RERAL obstinate ones (& I worked wwith a guy like that) you can inform him while there are no "disciplinary transfers" (unless there is in your dept) the Officer will be subject to less desirable duty based on an individual, as-needed basis to be determined by at least two supervisors (to show impartiality). It's notperfect, but given tight budgets & sometimes lazy LEOs nowadays, it's at least a start........

[E. Tackleberry]

Physical fitness test

Now for the REAL obstinate ones (& I worked wwith a guy like that) you can inform him while there are no "disciplinary transfers" (unless there is in your dept) the Officer will be subject to less desirable duty based on an individual, as-needed basis to be determined by at least two supervisors (to show impartiality). It's notperfect, but given tight budgets & sometimes lazy LEOs nowadays, it's at least a start........[/QUOTE]

This was what I ment. No permanent demotions, but the "**** jobs";-).

Zero pull-ups is not good. There physical fitness will cause them to have to use their sidearm when other more in shape officers don't need to. Kinda of a bad deal for everyone... Oh well. Seems like you have an idea of what you want, the most importent thing is to inforce the plan on a consistant basis!

On a personal note, i think all REALLY out of shape officers in the field should meet certain goals or they get parking dutie or paper work!


Are u located urban or rural? Size of station/department?

[Iowa #1603]

I don't know if your agency is unionized or not, BUT if it is you really need to get input from them

They might support some type of positive re-enforcement element and will definitely oppose any negative consequences. But in any event a policy is going to have to meet any contract requirements

[jcioccke]

If an Officer isn't motivate to have some level of physical fitness, I'm not sure you can ingrain that into them. You either have that will or not.

[ftttu]

I was put on one of those committees out of the blue as well as other ranks as a random sampling of our agency. We gave our 2 cents, but when our training academy representative started speaking about the current trends in law enforcement physical fitness training, we allowed his expertise take over the entire meeting.

We found out that there are so many lawsuits relating to the subject, there really can't be a "fair" assessment or maintenance program that can't be challenged. We were quickly out of our league so our agency head had to go with the academy's recommendations due to their investigation into the matter. Lastly, our agency head found out a committee isn't able to handle this issue, and that it has to be handled at a higher level.

[winn99]

[QUOTE=Zero pull-ups is not good. There physical fitness will cause them to have to use their sidearm when other more in shape officers don't need to. Kinda of a bad deal for everyone... Oh well. Seems like you have an idea of what you want, the most importent thing is to inforce the plan on a consistant basis!

On a personal note, i think all REALLY out of shape officers in the field should meet certain goals or they get parking dutie or paper work!


Are u located urban or rural? Size of station/department?[/QUOTE]

Urban area with around 60 sworn.

Iowa, no union however I have still have been getting as much input from everybody I see at the department. Basically just trying to find out what works and what doesn't for everyone else.

[South969]

as mentioned above, I think an incentive is better than a punishment. possibly earning paid time off for a score of "merit" as well as earning paid time off if you improve one grade level from the previous test. at my dept officers often said, "I don't have time with work and family to work out" so my dept began allowing officers to take an extended meal break on duty, only if it was used at the PD gym. I also agree with the above that a punishment may open up pandoras box for lawsuit issues.

[winn99]

Does anyone have an obstacle course as part of their fitness test? If so, what does it consist of and is it validated or certified by an outside company?