Strain and Train: Examining Workload and Health in Police Recruits

Law enforcement officers (LEOs) have numerous responsibilities such as patrolling, aiding in emergency response, and crime reduction. LEOs complete training academies to prepare for the many demands of the job. Previous works have suggested that occupational preparatory environments may taper the training at the end of the academy, which may negatively impact adaptations that occur during the academy. The purpose of the current work was to 1) examine the police training academy’s ability to improve health (body composition, aerobic capacity, neuromuscular function), 2) quantify changes in police recruit workload (WHOOP metrics) and overuse injury mechanisms, and 3) identify improvements to functional performance in police recruits during the ~30-week training academy. Thirty police officer recruits (3 females; mean ± SD; age = 25 ± 3 years, body mass index = 28.17 ± 4.01 kg/m²) enrolled in a local police training academy participated in this study. Participants completed three visits to the research laboratory. The first visit was a baseline testing session, visit two was the midpoint (~15 weeks enrolled in the academy), and visit three (end of the academy) occurred at approximately 30 weeks after baseline. At each visit, body composition, muscle size and quality, upper and lower body strength, dynamic balance performance, vertical jump height, and aerobic capacity was assessed. Following the baseline visit, police recruits enrolled in the training academy were outfitted with wearable devices to wear each day they were enrolled in the police academy. The primary findings of the current investigation indicated that the police training academy positively influenced body composition (increased lean mass; decreased fat mass, body mass index, body fat percentage) within the recruits. The results also suggested the training academy had heterogeneous impacts on neuromuscular function (decreases in strength, no change in muscle cross-sectional area, improvements to echo intensity until the midpoint, increase in handgrip strength). There were also significantly higher levels of stress and lower levels of recovery reported by recruits in the first half of the training academy based off the wearable and survey-derived data. Lastly, the results suggested there were no significant differences in aerobic capacity or functional performance during the police training academy.