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26 Law Enforcement Technology December 2014 www.officer.com immediate supervisors make it a part of their daily routine. At the academy level, the more we emphasize fitness, the more opportunity there is to teach the trans- formative effect it has on quality of life. Job performance should not be the only reason we encourage fitness. We should make it a part of the sales pitch to law enforcement so they can live out their retirement years and enjoy their lives out- side of work. "Departments are reluctant to establish any requirements because they do not want to risk a lawsuit for requiring a stan- dard that cannot be defended in a law- suit," she continues. "There are several reputable companies that help establish those standards in a way that would be more defensible in a court of law, but that is costly and can be time consuming. Departments want established stan- dards in fitness, but when they draw a line in the sand as to what they think is acceptable, they risk good officers not passing for something that later on was decided not essential to the job and end up in court. In the end, they just allow officers a space to work out but no time to do it…it is just an evil cycle." The Brentwood (Tennessee) Police Department does things a little bit dif- ferently. According to the administrator of the fitness program, Sgt. Nick Surre, also co-founder of LEO-fit, their program is "a mandatory participation bi-annual fitness assessment. Mandatory participa- tion means you must complete and give your best effort, but there are no negative effects if officers do not pass," he says. "However, there are incentives to pass. When we started the program in 2012, we identified several key issues in order to make it successful: • It must be a positive incentive program • It must pay officers to complete assessment • It must have high ranking command staff lead by example in fitness • It must establish fitness assessment as a hiring standard • It must provide a good workout facility available 24 hours a day • It must provide the tools to the officers in order to be successful "Since October 2013 we have com- pleted three fitness assessments (every six months) and we have seen a steady increase in officers passing the assess- ment," he says. What departments can do about it Officer health and fitness won't happen by chance; it has to be planned for, imple- mented and followed up. "If departments want fit officers, they must prioritize fitness," says Hillsboro PD's DiGiulio. "Exercise is deliberate and it won't hap- pen by accident. If health, fitness, and wellness are an afterthought in a depart- ment, they will be an afterthought for the officers. In order to make fitness a priority Institutional support needed Whatever departments can do to promote health and fitness is a positive step. Some departments offer classes, others have agreements with local gyms and still others have made space available for workouts. Experts agree that general, overall fitness is the key. "Most fitness programs are as good or as bad as the practitioner conducting them and the effort and compliance offered by the participant," says Jay Smith, President and CEO of FitForce. "Police officers, from a physical standpoint, need to be generalists: that is, they don't need to run marathons, bench press a house, or be a black belt. All are good to have but not need to have. Overall physical ability or fitness, not specific excellence in one to the detriment of all the other abilities, should be the goal of a law enforcement officer." Sgt. Nick Surre, administrator of the Brentwood (Tenn.) PD fitness program and co-founder of LEO-fit Fitness testing by FitForce Tactical Fitness Training with the ATF, courtesy of FitForce. HEALTH & FITNESS