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28 Law Enforcement Technology December 2014 www.officer.com part of that day. "Departments should be allowing officers to maintain fitness on the job," says Fit-to-Enforce's Kennedy. "It should be built into the work week and encouraged rather than having to some- how sneak around on a break to work in a quick set." Changing perception There are signs that health and fitness is becoming a greater concern for law enforcement. "When I started in law enforcement fitness training, I only knew of one other person with my background working at a police department (the person who I replaced) but they were not working with the academy," says Kelly from Fit-to-Enforce. "At that time, there were some problems with injury trends and my department asked me to start working with the recruits to help reduce that—I have been there for 15 years now. There are now two national conferences on fitness for the law enforcement train- ing population and I have met several other trainers that are now working with other law enforcement departments in a similar capacity. So I see the future in fit- ness training as rather bright. I hope that momentum keeps on building." Hillsboro PD's DiGiulio believes we will see a time when fitness/wellness programming will become mandatory for police officers. "The growing research will bring to light the tangible benefits officer fitness/wellness will have on the law enforcement communities," he says. "On the programming side, I believe we will see an increase of holistic wellness curriculum which will focus on physical, mental and emotional wellness." With more emphasis on healthy living in our general culture, the thinking is that this will transfer into the law enforcement culture as well. "I'm a glass half-full guy," says FitForce's Smith. "For a long time I've said the bigger picture of our culture as a whole would suggest a positive prog- nosis. I'm not so sure that's still the case. The fitness levels of young people enter- ing the profession, the general willingness to do the hard stuff sometimes, and the current inertia that exists in many depart- ments are all coming together to suggest a less than positive future. On the other hand, we are currently in the middle of an unprecedented amount of scrutiny and activity from the courts. In my 25-year career, we have never seen as much litiga- tion around basic issues that have long remained unresolved. We may be shaping the future now with the litigation begin- ning or under review." ■ Circle 21 on Reader Service Card Keith W. Strandberg is an American freelance writer and award-winning screenwriter/ producer of feature films living in Switzerland. He was a former contributing editor for LET more than a decade ago and is happy to be back writing for the magazine. HEALTH & FITNESS