New Fitness Testing Planned For Specialist Police Officers
Friday, 12 September, 2008
Across the Police Service of England and Wales, Police Officers undertake a number of specialist roles that require a varying degree of physical fitness to effectively perform the role. These roles include Public Order, CBRN, Mounted Units, Air Support, Firearms units, dog handlers, cyclists and Method of Entry trained staff.
The Police Advisory Board for England and Wales (PABEW) commissioned an ACPO working party to review this area. The ACPO led Fitness Working Group was tasked with developing appropriate guidelines for the service to allow the introduction of appropriate physical fitness tests for the identified roles.
It is critical that any new fitness standards are actually required and 'job-related' thereby ensuring that any officer who passes will be able to deal with the physical operational demands of the specialist role. The Job Related Fitness Tests will be designed to comply with all relevant health, safety and equality legislation.
The Fitness Working Group, chaired by Deputy Chief Constable Derek Bonnard of Cleveland Police, includes representation from the NPIA, HMIC, Police Federation, Superintendents Association and a number of specialist advisors from Forces.
The Fitness Working Party is due to receive the final report in December this year and following consideration will report to the ACPO Reward and Recognition Portfolio meeting, led by Simon Ash, later that month. It is anticipated that further discussions will take place with recommendations being available for the PABEW meeting in January 2009.
The Group has secured funding from the NPIA to engage a firm of external consultants to help drive forward this important work. To date thirteen Forces, who represent the breadth of the policing environment, have volunteered to act as pilot sites for a data gathering exercise during the summer of 2008.
On visits to the pilot Forces, data such as heart rate and blood lactose levels are gathered during any existing fitness tests, and then during operational training exercises that directly replicate the demands of the role.
All the data gathered will be analysed by specialists in this area to determine the relevance to the specialist role of the current fitness testing regime. This work will then be used to determine the most appropriate physical fitness standards, for each specialist role, that set a benchmark to be passed for an officer that gives confidence in their ability to meet the actual requirements of the operational role on a day to day basis.
The new JRFT for specialist roles will give confidence to the officers of the Police Service that any tests that are applied at either the selection or the retention phase are based on robust research, are as fair as possible to all who apply, and are directly linked to the requirements of the role.
The public will be reassured by knowing that those officers who undertake the challenges of specialist roles for the community are able to meet the task and deliver a first class service.
DCC Bonnard said: "This is a ground breaking piece of work and it's important that we get it exactly right.
"The extensive research we are undertaking to determine the appropriate fitness standards demonstrates our commitment to the project.
"There will be considerable benefits for the Police Service in having a national standard for fitness testing. Firstly, officers can be confident they will be trained to a recognised standard that exists across the country and is applicable to all specialist roles.
"Secondly, members of the public should also be reassured that officers who undertake these specialist roles have been trained and tested to deliver an excellent quality service, which they will ultimately see the benefit from."
