DEVELOPING FITNESS OF LAW ENFORCEMENT RECRUITS DURING ACADEMY TRAINING

D. Maupin¹, B. Schram¹, E. Canetti¹, R. Orr¹

Background: Law enforcement is characterised by physically demanding tasks interspersed with periods of sedentary activity. To prepare for the physical demands of jobs, law enforcement agencies enlist recruits into academies and provide physical training. This training typically focuses on aerobic-based exercises despite occupational tasks often consisting of anaerobic-based events.  

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyse the changes in fitness and occupational task performance in police recruits.

Methods: Data from initial and final fitness and occupational tests were provided from a US law enforcement agency. Recruits participated in two batteries of tests, one focusing on general fitness (such as pushups, and situps), the second focusing on occupational tasks and anaerobic systems (such as a wall climb). A paired t-test was completed using initial and final scores of each of the above tests to determine overall change in fitness during the course of the academy, while an independent t-test was used to analyse final performance between sexes. An ANOVA was used to compare results across age ranges. Effect sizes (d) were also calculated for the between-group comparisons for sex and age, where the difference between the means was divided by the pooled SD (10). In accordance with Hopkins (21), a d less than 0.2 was considered a trivial effect; 0.2 to 0.6 a small effect; 0.6 to 1.2 a moderate effect; 1.2 to 2.0 a large effect; 2.0 to 4.0 a very large effect; and 4.0 and above an extremely large effect. International Review Board ethics was provided for this research by California State University, Fullertone (HSR-17-0037).

Results: Independent t-tests showed significant increases (p < 0.05) across all fitness tests, with a trend towards larger effect sizes in aerobic and muscle endurance-based tests. Males also showed significantly greater scores across almost all tests, with differences being larger in anaerobic and muscle strength-based tests. Comparisons across age ranges found younger males tending to perform significantly better across most assessments, though this trend was not seen in females.

Conclusion(s): Recruits were able to significantly improve their overall fitness and performance on occupational tests. Participants in this academy were also at a higher level of fitness compared to other law enforcement academies. While recruits were able to significantly improve their performance across all areas there was a trend towards larger increases in muscle endurance and aerobic based activities, despite common occupational tasks relying on muscular strength, power, and anaerobic fitness. This suggests training specific outcomes that may not relate to occupational requirements.

Implications: Training programs and return-to-training following injury programs should emphasise anaerobic and muscular strength, as these have previously been related to occupational task performance and may therefore better prepare recruits for job demands. However, given the high volume of aerobic training, this may also need to be a training and return-to-training focus for police recruits undergoing training.  

Funding, acknowledgements: This research was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship

Keywords: Conditioning, Police, Anaerobic Fitness

Topic: Occupational health & ergonomics

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: California State University Fullerton

Committee: California State University Fullerton Institutional Review Board

Ethics number: HSR-17-0037