Physical fitness and use-of-force performance for police students : The Impact of body height, body mass, age, and gender
Original version
https://doi.org/10.18261/njsp.11.1.6Abstract
All patrolling police officers, regardless of body composition, age, or gender, are expected to meet the physical challenges to which they are exposed. Some challenges can be extremely demanding, such as situations where officers must arrest an intractable subject. These situations might be influenced by the body height, body mass, age, and gender of the officer. This study aimed to explore relationships between these characteristics of forthcoming Danish police officers and their physical capacity (at a Physical Fitness Test – PFT) and their ability to handle an intractable subject during a Use-of-Force and Arrest Simulation Test (UFT). The study examines the impact of various physical characteristics on the performance of Danish police officers during a PFT and a UFT. It involved 646 Danish police students, and found that male students generally outperformed female students in both tests. Additionally, larger body composition conferred advantages to male students in the PFT, while larger body mass was disadvantageous for female students in both tests. Age negatively affected performance in the PFT for both genders. However, no correlation was observed between age and UFT performance. The findings underscore the importance of tailored training programmes early in police education to optimise performance in these tests.