Law Enforcement Technology

DEC 2014

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www.officer.com December 2014 Law Enforcement Technology 25 not be affected by these improvements." Determining the concrete returns of a fitness program, however, is a long term strategy. "The tangible benefits of a fit police force are decreased absenteeism, fewer injuries due to non-line of duty accidents—so called 'trip and fall' or 'bending over to tie my shoe' stuff," says FitForce's Smith. "Return on Investment is estimated on average to be $3.14 per $1 invested in an employee-centered program, though some industry estimates go up as high as $8 to $9 per $1 invested. One department employed voluntary health screens and identified five officers with risk so high they were sent imme- diately to their primary care physicians. Statistically, the likelihood was very high that two to three of those five were due to coronary heart disease-related risk. Since the estimated cost of an in-service heart attack is over $500,000, that agency and those officers dodged some scary bullets. "More difficult-to-quantify benefits are increased productivity, decreased duration of disability due to line of duty injury, improved morale, improved public perception of the department and its offi- cers and improved officer self-confidence, self-perception, personal stress manage- ment," he adds. Fitness goes beyond the workplace, however. "The benefits of fitness are far- ther reaching than just job performance," says Kelly Kennedy, PhD, CSCS, CISSN, HFS, Fit-to-Enforce. "When we think of quality of life, incidence of injury, cost of sick time, back injuries, use of force… the list goes on. We want our kids to eat healthy and workout, why not ourselves? We also want to know when our families call upon law enforcement for help, they get a competent and fit cop that can take care of things for them." The challenges Many departments emphasize health and fitness at the academy level, but once offi- cers pass, there is little or no emphasis, support or continued training. "Generally, academy students are housed at their respective academies and their entire day is spent learning all things related to law enforcement," says DiGiulio of the Hillsboro (Oregon) Police Department. "The curriculum is fairly holistic and officers' physical and emotional well-being is addressed with the hope that this will ultimately help develop a better officer. Once an officer returns to their department there are competing interests for the officer's work time. Unfortunately dedicating time to officer fitness is sometimes seen as com- peting with officer productivity. This is both sad and inaccurate, as there is an increasing body of research showing a direct correlation with fitness/wellness and productivity." The experts agree that policy needs to be made, and that is where problems arise. "Strong, enforceable policy sup- ported by empirical evidence and sound knowledge is needed," says FitForce's Smith. "It all starts with the job. If a policy or an employment requirement is to be defensible, it must be demonstra- bly job related for the position in question and consistent with business necessity. Job relatedness is documented with evidence professionally collected and reported. Consistency with business necessity is evident when the department undertakes the means necessary to ensure its person- nel maintain the ability to do the job. "If a job has a physical dimension to it, the agency has a responsibility to ensure those in the job can do the job," he continues. "A hir- ing policy should state a minimum level of physical abil- ity is necessary to safely and effectively perform the essential functions of the job, whenever, wherever, at a moment's notice. Therefore, the agency will support, educate, and test for that physical ability and the officer will participate, comply and demonstrate that physical ability for the duration of their career. The policy is agreed to by all parties, as evidenced by signatures collected during the hiring phase. (Firearms qualification and use is an often cited analogy.)" The emphasis on health and fitness has to come from the leaders of the agen- cies. "The biggest challenge is creating a culture that supports fitness from the top down," says Fit-to-Enforce's Kennedy. "In the military, fitness is part of the entire operational structure and is not consid- ered an optional choice. Somehow in the law enforcement community, fitness is only supported for subordinates when Kelly Kennedy, PhD, Fit-to-Enforce Fit-to-Enforce is a consulting company focused on improving the quality of fitness training in law enforcement academies. Qualified trainers provide a specialized fitness instructor course for law enforcement to certify them in physical fitness training. HEALTH & FITNESS

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