Abstract
A challenge for law enforcement agencies is the many positions that need filling. Agencies may modify their applicant test battery (ATB; multilevelled testing including fitness, background checks, psychological evaluations) to increase the hiring pool of potential recruits by augmenting the utility of testing. This study determined fitness differences of law enforcement recruits hired under two different ATB protocols. Retrospective analysis was conducted on seven academy classes (442 males, 84 females) hired under an older ATB, and one class (45 males, 13 females) hired under a newer ATB. Recruits completed the following before academy: 60 s push-ups and sit-ups (muscular endurance); vertical jump (lower-body power); medicine ball throw (upper-body power); 75 yard pursuit run (75PR; change-of-direction speed); and 20 m multistage fitness test (20MSFT; aerobic fitness). Independent sample t-tests (p ≤ 0.001) and effect sizes (d) evaluated between-group fitness differences for recruits hired under the different ATB protocols (combined sexes, males, and females). There were no significant differences between the ATB groups. However, newer ATB female recruits completed 13% fewer 20MSFT shuttles than the older ATB group, which, although not significant (p = 0.007), did have a moderate effect (d = 0.62). Females hired under the newer ATB had lower aerobic fitness, which could impact physical training performance and graduation.
Highlights
Law enforcement can be a physically demanding profession
Equal variances were assumed for all variables except body mass and the Medicine Ball Throw (MBT)
The results showed that there were limited fitness differences between classes hired under older and newer applicant test battery (ATB) from one agency
Summary
Law enforcement can be a physically demanding profession. During a shift, officers can be required to exert force during pushing, pulling, lifting, carrying, or dragging tasks [1]. Officers may need to complete job-specific tasks, including driving vehicles [2], defensive tactics [3], civilian or partner rescue [4], and pursuing and apprehending suspects [3,4]. Due to these demands, physical training forms an important component of the academy training process. Academy training is where law enforcement training staff will develop recruits to meet the physical challenges of the job, while teaching the necessary procedures, skills, and expected values and behavior expected of a law enforcement officer [5,6]. Public Health 2020, 17, 7512; doi:10.3390/ijerph17207512 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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