I probably ought not to but here are my thoughts on the JRFT debate currently raging.

Firstly, I’d agree with those saying that the bleep test isn’t a good test of the kind of fitness required to be a police officer and less so for some specialist roles like AFO, PSU etc.

It’s a measure of Vo2 max alone and nothing else and I’m concerned that larger, heavier officers are at a disadvantage due to the stop and start nature. It stands to reason that more energy is required to accelerate/decelerate a heavy object than a light one and I say that as

somebody who is fit enough to pass a test at SFO level but is also on the wrong side of 15 stone.

The bleep test is also an injury factory, the strain of repeated stopping and starting on knees, hips and ankles is immense. Worse for those with underlying injuries or issues.

Personally, I do the treadmill test these days due to injury. It tests the same thing to the same level but with less impact on the joints. I’m capable of doing the bleep to SFO but it wrecks me for a few days after.

All that said I think it’s fair to expect some base level of fitness from officers, the job is often physical and dangerous and if your fitness isn’t up to scratch you put your colleagues at greater risk, which isn’t fair.

I also understand the stress that comes from being tested, it’s completely different to the stress of actually doing policing and anything we can do to alleviate that stress ought to be welcome. My force offers practice tests (initially these were only for females but I think

that has changed) for instance.

Ultimately fitness is still important and yes I understand that it doesn’t impact our ability to do much of the job: investigating thoroughly, treating victims compassionately, defusing situations etc

but it does impact us in those moments when things have gone horribly wrong and were fighting not to be injured or killed. In fact, it can help prevent things getting that far.
There’s a reason professional sports people (boxers etc?) are incredibly fit.

It’s a little disheartening to see people conflating being fit with lack of other policing skills, the usual “protein shake swilling gym monkey” tropes are out in force.

There has to be some kind of fitness test, I’d prefer it to be one that better reflected the job and tested a broader range of fitness. We used to do just such a test for ARV officers which involved navigating obstacles in full ARV kit and carrying/holding

heavy ballistic items like shields, much in the same way we do daily out on the streets. Sadly this test was done away with for not producing, in the words of one senior officer during the debate on armed policing, “equity.”

That said, if we must test only Vo2 max, I’d like to see greater access to the alternate tests (bike and treadmill) firstly for those with injuries/health conditions but eventually for anybody struggling with the other kind.