By Jim Six, The Gloucester County, N.J. Times
Mike Marsh ended his sixth lap around the outside track at Delsea Regional High School, red-faced and gasping for much-needed air after the mile-and-a-half run.
“You OK?” someone foolishly asked.
“Define ‘OK,’” Marsh growled, showing that his sense of humor hadn’t suffered the way his body had during the run.
Marsh and five other Franklin Township cops were finishing up their annual physical fitness test -- a voluntary test that earns them incentive pay of $440 at the end of the year.
The six cops -- including Chief Mike DiGiorgio -- were the first of about 20 who would take the test, under the watchful eye of Lt. Cleo Howe. Howe is a runner himself and, even though he was keeping time on a stopwatch, he managed two laps to encourage the slower runners.
A couple of the Franklin officers breezed through the run. For the rest, it was an effort.
Just about any cop will tell you 98 percent of their jobs involve sitting -- at a desk or behind the wheel. It’s that unpredictable other 2 percent that dictates that police officers stay in some kind of good shape.
Many, although not all, of those who are hired by police departments have to pass a physical training test as part of the hiring process before being sent to the Gloucester County Police Academy. Those who opt to pay their own way to the academy -- they’re called alternate route students -- have to pass a PT test at the academy to get in.
Officers “come out of the police academy in good shape,” Howe pointed out.
It’s zero-dark-thirty as the police academy trainees get ready for their second PT test.
The trainees are 11 weeks into a 20-week training course and have already been decreased in number by nine -- seven of those leaving because of things like knee injuries that hampered their physical training.
Michael Brooks, 22, from the Salem City Police Department, now weighs 238 pounds. He has proudly lost 51 pounds at the academy due to a restricted diet and exercise.
His police department didn’t have a PT test when he was hired. The toughest thing for Brooks is still the running. His buddies quickly point out, though, that he has improved tremendously in that department.
Frank Lopiccolo of Washington Township comes from a department without physical training requirements, but that didn’t really matter to him.
“I generally run eight miles a day,” he said -- even before coming to the academy.
Jason Sailer, of Gloucester Township, also said he didn’t have to meet any physical standards to be hired.
Roger Hill, of Penns Grove, didn’t have to meet any physical requirements, either, but he had already spent 13 years as a Salem County corrections officer and was in pretty good physical shape, he said.
Bonnie-Lynn Bell, of Washington Township, is an alternate route student.
“I did very little training,” she admitted.
“I had prepared to take the test,” but hadn’t really prepared to attend the academy. She really didn’t think she’d make the cut, she said.
“I’m doing better now, but I’m not where I’d like to be,” Bell said.
The trainees run about three miles a day now. They all agree their daily PT routine puts this test to shame. The class members readily admitted test day was a day of rest for them.
“You have to train a little to pass the test,” said Franklin Township’s Howe.
If there were no test, officers “tend to get lazy,” added Chief DiGiorgio.
Earlier this year, when he was looking to hire a new officer, more than 300 applications were received. They whittled that down to about 70 -- and the PT test narrowed that field down to 30, said DiGiorgio.
“We want to make sure the guys are fit. We want to make sure when the people call for a police officer, they can do the job,” DiGiorgio said.
The departments that have entry tests -- or, like West Deptford Township, a mandatory annual test -- tend to use some variant of what’s known as the Cooper Test: a run, push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, a bench press. Some add something, some change something, but they’re all a bit similar.
The Franklin Township incentive test has a mile-and-a-half run. The mandatory test in West Deptford has a mile run, said Chief James Mehaffey.
In his test, the officers under 29 years old need to do 43 push-ups in a minute for a perfect score, 12 to just pass; 51 sit-ups in a minute to ace the test and 24 to pass it; do a 50-yard dash in 7.1 seconds or less; bench press 100 percent of their weight; and run a mile in under 7 minutes, 16 seconds.
The requirements decrease as the officers get older.
His department took the twice-a-year test recently. The lowest score was an 83.6, well above a passing grade of 70.
What happens if an officer fails a mandatory test?
“That’s an interesting question. No one has,” Mehaffey said.
“Some might get less than a passing grade on one part and pick up points on another,” he said.
If someone didn’t get a passing score, he said, they would get a certain amount of time to improve to a passing grade. After that “there would be some kind of penalty,” he added.
“Physical fitness is part of your job, not only for yourself, but the police officers you’re working with,” Mehaffey said.
West Deptford officers get a free membership to the gym at RiverWinds, or get up to $300 to go to another gym.
“We need some way to measure that. The test is that measuring stick,” Mehaffey said.
The Glassboro Police Department gives a version of the Cooper test before hiring a new officer.
“We have a gym in the station,” said Lt. Frank Brown. They, too, have an incentive fitness program built into officers’ contracts: Each officer receives $150 annually for passing the test, $300 if he or she earns 85 or higher on the test, Brown said.
He said the top brass would probably talk with an officer who was developing a weight problem.
“Not only for the department’s sake, but for your own health,” said Brown.
“It’s nothing like it used to be. The new-generation cop is very physically fit,” he said.
Elk Township hasn’t used a PT test to hire officers in the past, but they will from now on, thanks to a new regulation.
“All my guys, they do it on their own,” said Chief Steve Brogan. “One guy runs his own karate school. Everybody keeps in good shape on their own.”
Brogan said he likes the notion of having an incentive program.
When you make the test mandatory, “you have to offer gym memberships, time off to work out,” he said.
“What happens if they don’t pass it? Do you bring them inside, pay them 60 grand to sit inside?” said Brogan.
“Even if 1 percent of the time you get in a physical altercation, you have to at least handle yourself until backup gets there. If ... you can’t hold on, it’s tough,” he said.
“I feel that when someone looks at a police officer, they want to know that they’re going to be able to run somebody down, help them when they need it,” said West Deptford’s Mehaffey.
“The image that’s projected when an officer is physically fit adds to the professionalism,” he added.
“I’ve always thought it was part of your job to be physically fit,” Mehaffey said.
“I don’t see too many out-of-shape cops,” Franklin’s Howe said, “but I don’t think it’s as good as you think. I think they need to take care of themselves better.”