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Out-of-shape applicants hurting recruiting efforts of Jackson police!

The Jackson Police Department is trying to get more officers on the street, but Deputy Police Chief Gerald Jones said a significant percentage of applicants are turned away because they are out of shape.

“In this last group, over a third of the tested applicants were not able to pass the initial PT test,” said Jones, referring to the city police academy’s initial fitness exam of pushups, a 1 1/2-mile run, obstacle course and flexibility test.

Mississippi’s obesity problems are well known, but Jones said it is not just that recruits are overweight.

“What we are finding is a decline in overall physical strength,” he said. “We’ve seen people who are not obese. They just lack strength and stamina.

“They can’t complete the mile-and-a-half run. They get winded.”

Overweight and out-of-shape recruits – for police, fire and emergency medical services – present problems for agencies around the nation.

Last year, researchers at Harvard University and Boston University, and the Cambridge Health Alliance discovered 77 percent of fire and EMT trainees in Massachusetts were overweight or obese.

Tony Tsismenakis, the lead author of the report, said the research did not include applicants disqualified for fitness reasons, meaning the percentage of all applicants likely is higher.

Harvard School of Public Health professor Stefanos Kales, one the authors of the report, said no national studies on recruits exists, but in localized studies researchers “consistently find that among police and firefighters, generally three-quarters are overweight, and that includes one-third that are obese.”

The picture may be worse, he said. Over the years, some departments have lowered physical strength standards to avoid discrimination lawsuits, he said.

“In combination with a less-fit pool,” he said, “that will end up allowing more obese recruits to successfully join these services.”

Texas Christian University kinesiology professor Deborah Rhea said cuts in physical education in public schools has had a devastating effect on fitness among young people.

Rhea points to a 2006 CDC study showing the percentage of obese teens jumped from 5 percent two decades ago to 18 percent at the time of the study. A new report from the National Association for Sport and Physical Education finds only five states require physical education for all grades, and more than half allow PE exemptions or waivers, a 61-percent increase since 2006.

Jones said the number of applicants in the current class of JPD recruits has dropped from 600 to just above 100 as physical fitness, psychological testing, drug screening and background checks whittle down numbers for a class starting in September.

Only about 180 of the 600 applicants passed the written exam and about 75 failed the physical fitness portion.

Jones said there was an increase in applicants, he suspects, because of the slumping economy. With a starting salary of $24,000 for training academy recruits and $28,000 upon graduation, he figures those who stick it out are not as concerned about money.

“You have to realize this is not something that’s going to make you rich,” Jones said. “You have to want something more than money. Every day I go home happy knowing I made an impression in someone’s life. We’re looking for people with that type of character.”

Los Angeles Police Capt. Michelle Veenstra, who oversees the department’s training division, said about one in five recruits fail her initial fitness exam. But instead of washing them out, otherwise promising recruits are sent along a separate track in which they are given more intense physical training and education on setting goals, eating right and staying fit.

Veenstra said this is new material for a generation of young adults who were not taught those lessons in school.

“We have computer kids texting all the time; people who don’t go out and play sports,” she said. “You are dealing with a society that does eat and eat bad.”

To help with diet, two years ago LAPD hired a full-time nutritionist to work with recruits and counsel officers, she said.

Rhea said education leaders need to get physical education back in the schools, including instruction on diet and exercise.

“You’ve got to educate them why they need to be active,” she said. “These things turn around. It’s just a change in expectations.”

In Jackson, the Police Department has started an Explorers chapter for young people interested in a career in law enforcement.

“We are emphasizing overall fitness and wellness,” Jones said.

Jones said recently installed Chief Rebecca Coleman has renewed the emphasis for officers to remain in good shape by recommending they attend workouts two nights at week at the police academy.

JPD employs 465 sworn officers, but it is budgeted for 500.

“Chief Coleman said she wants quality overall, whether we have 10 people pass or one,” Jones said