Minimum physical standards are often a touchy subject. Anytime I have ever floated an idea out there about this I am usually met with comments like:
“Last time I checked, I never had to overhead press anything while I was at work.”
or
“I’ve never had to run 1.5 miles while on shift.”
The better ones are usually people who think whatever I put out there should be even higher. Which I totally agree with.
However, while departments struggle to find qualified applicants I am trying to strike a middle ground with reality and what I would want if I was in charge of hiring people at a police department.
When I originally came up with this standard, the New York City Police Department dropped the 1.5 mile run time standard for cadets to graduate their academy, and is why I elected to use the run time standard below along with:
1.5 x Body-Weight Trap Bar Deadlift x 3 (I’ll even go with using the high handles on the bar)
.3 x Body Weight Single Arm Overhead Press x 3
1 Strict Pull Up- Yes, just one- This also doubles as a body composition test.
Then:
The daunting 14:21 1.5 mile run
or
800m run- In full uniform and equipment- In 4 Minutes or less
Why are most of the relative strength related?
- The heavier you get, the harder this test will get if you don’t train.
- We are recruiting from the general public. I know the street doesn’t have weight classes but this is the reality of who does this job typically.
To quote Donald Rumsfeld:
“You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”
I chose the aerobic standards above because I think they’re reasonable and won’t require anybody to spend too much time on the track. In fact, with some properly programmed circuit training you would probably be able to hit this number easily.
I chose the single arm press because it requires total body tension to be done properly. If someone is hell bent on having a horizontal press in the assessment, then do single arm DB/KB bench presses.
What do you think? Too easy? Too Hard for the minimum?
Answer the call of 21st Century Policing- Raise the standards, hire the right people for the job, and create a police force the public deserves.
