Jeffrey Scott: Notre Dame College (South Euclid, Ohio), (Ret.) Chief of Police

If you ask any citizen if police officers should be required to maintain a level of physical fitness that ensures they can perform the varied task they will encounter in the line of duty, what do you think they will say?  I’ve done this.  While my story is an N of 1, I’m confident you will have the same results.  The answer will be, simply, yes.  

Every police academy requires officers to complete and pass a physical fitness evaluation to graduate from their academy.  Most assume this standard carries over into their respective police departments.  This is where the story gets, let’s call it, interesting.  The little-known truth is that only two percent of police departments in the United States have mandated, job qualifying, annual physical fitness testing requirements.  

First, let’s start with the standards.  What are they?  Well, the short answer is there are none.  At least, there is not a baseline national standard.  There are many really good tests out there, but from state to state, while they are all similar, they are not the same.  

Most of these standards are based on guidelines from the Cooper Institute. But the Cooper Institute will tell you that they are not a “policy-making” organization, so they can’t get into the business of telling agencies what their standards should be.  If you are a Chief or someone involved in the policy-making for physical fitness standards for your agency, you should read this paragraph again.  Why?  Because if your expecting to have the Cooper Institute support your policies regarding fitness testing, you might have a problem.  

This week’s guest is retired Chief of Police, Jeffrey Scott, from the Buckeye state!  We talk about fitness standards and more on this episode.  We met after an interesting news story emergency from Hamilton County, Ohio.  A police agency was quoted publicly taking a position that new recruit officers should not be required to pass a physical fitness test to graduate from the law enforcement academy.  

For the love of all things Coptimizer related!!!  How fast and how far might policing fall if we start abandoning standards.  In fact, this chat segued perfectly into this very topic as the Memphis PD use of force case was in the news as well.  

Are we sometimes our own worst enemies in policing?  Tune in and find out!

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