Ed Note: The following is one in a series of articles written by Police1 columnists in the wake of the recently completed IACP conference in San Diego. Check out the IACP Special Coverage page for complete and continuing coverage of the event. If you attended the IACP and want to share your thoughts or photos, please let us know by sending an email.
They’re a danger to themselves and other officers, and you probably see them on your department: Two extremes, one the bulked up, Incredible Hulk who seems itching to take on any aggressive suspect, the other the out-of-shape blob who’s a prime candidate for a cardiac the next time he tangles with a resister.
In separate presentations at the recent IACP annual conference in San Diego, chiefs and other attendees got an earful about both types — the steroid abusers and the fitness neglecters — among their personnel, the problems they can cause, and what may need to be done about them that will potentially affect all officers.
The facts are sobering. Here are highlights:
STEROID ABUSE BY COPS
“On any given department, at least five percent of officers, if not more, have taken anabolic steroids,” estimated Kim Humphrey, commander of the Professional Standards Bureau of the Phoenix (Ariz.) P.D. “This abuse has surfaced in Florida, California, Massachusetts, New York, Texas — it’s a coast-to-coast problem.”
Humphrey has gained first-hand expertise about it from an ongoing series of investigations into steroid abuse by police, firemen, and other municipal workers in the Phoenix area. At one clinic suspected of illegally dispensing the drugs, firefighters “drove fire trucks up to the place” to get supplies and off-duty cop customers parked personal vehicles out front with their uniforms visible inside, he said.
“Steroids are abused a lot” in the public service sector, he claimed, “and they have a lot of potential for creating serious problems.” Phoenix experienced one “significant incident where an officer using steroids behaved so irrationally that a supervisor had to take his gun away.”
En route to being tested, an officer who’d been taking steroids for 12 years tried to proselytize IA investigators to start using them and advised them where to go to get supplies, Humphrey recalled.
“I know for a fact that plaintiffs’ attorneys are starting to look at steroid use” where officers are accused of being overly aggressive or using excessive force, he said. “This could result in huge liability judgments against departments.”
Apart from wanting to bulk up to support a body-building hobby, officers often cite job-related image and self-esteem motives for getting into steroids, Humphrey said. “They think the drugs will help them do the job better.”
Some feel they are “picked on all the time” because they’re too small. Others feel they stand a better chance of getting on or staying on SWAT teams with steroid use. Still others believe they’re “not big enough to take on criminals, who are getting tougher and tougher” and sometimes have massive muscle development from working out in prison. Humphrey quoted one officer user: “I want bad guys to run away when they see me on the street.”
Legitimately, anabolic-androgenic steroids may be prescribed for hypogonadism (an abnormally low testosterone level) and a few other medical conditions. But in those rare instances, the medication is most often administered via a patch or gel, not in oral or injection form, and it is not effective for muscle growth, Humphrey explained.
Although steroids are illegal (a felony) without a valid prescription, the hundreds of formulations associated with abuse are easily obtained. One of Humphrey’s co-presenters, Dr. Gary Green, a sports medicine specialist who helps train law enforcement agencies in testing protocols, said he Googled “buy anabolic steroids” and in just .22 second got 413,000 websites where purchases could be made. Abusers also readily secure the drugs through unscrupulous physicians at clinics and “longevity” centers, from veterinary and pet supply stores, at gyms, and over the border in Mexico.
Ironically, Humphrey said, “being bigger does not necessarily equal being fit or even stronger.” And the effort to get there through steroid use carries significant personal risk, ranging from chronic muscle tightness to death. Among potential adverse side effects ticked off by Dr. Green were high blood pressure and other cardiovascular complications, major liver problems, nasty tissue tears and other musculoskeletal disasters, breast enlargement in men, psychoses, depression, and hyperaggression (“’roid rage”).
“Most departments haven’t figured out how to deal with the steroid problem,” Humphrey asserted. But for more than two years now, Phoenix P.D. has addressed it head-on through policies and education aimed at awareness and prevention and by adding steroid screening to pre-employment and random in-service drug testing to ensure enforcement.
Gaining cooperation for the testing in particular required conferring with the local police union, but Humphrey considers the process well worthwhile and he urged other agencies to follow suit, even though reliable and comprehensive testing can prove expensive and complicated and, along with other drug testing, may meet strong union resistance in some jurisdictions.
“We’ve found some officers who’ve tested positive for steroids without having a prescription. Others have quit while under investigation,” he says, noting that so far all suspected of abuse have been males.
“We’re still learning and adjusting our protocols to close loopholes. Realistically, we probably can’t completely stop this problem. But we can say we tried to blaze a trail in combating it, and that should lessen liability.”
In addition to testing, Humphrey stressed the importance of observing officers for “red flags” that might suggest abuse, including:
• a visible increase in body mass over a short period of time
• noticeable acne and/or oily skin
• unreasonable emotional responses to situations
• mood changes, particularly an increase in aggressiveness
• multiple use-of-force incidents or complaints of improper outbursts and attitude
“What has been a problem in the sports field for many years, we are now struggling with in law enforcement,” said Dr. Green, who has worked with the DEA on steroid investigations. “It is not limited to one geographical area. We see it all over.”
[More information about the nature of steroids and the anti-abuse campaign by Phoenix P.D. can be found in an article by Humphrey, Green, and four other authors, “Anabolic Steroid Use and Abuse by Police Officers: Policy & Prevention,” which appeared in the June 2008 issue of The Police Chief magazine. The Phoenix police and fire departments have also produced a 34-minute CD for public safety personnel: “Anabolic Steroids: Body Building or Body Destruction?.” Humphrey can be emailed at: kim.humphrey@phoenix.gov]
L.E.’s FITNESS SCANDAL
What’s necessary for you to extend your life by 10 to 20 more years? In a presentation on “Protecting Our Officers,” which focused largely on officer fitness and law enforcement-related injuries, David Cashwell, a public policy and policing consultant from North Carolina, cited this magic triad:
1. Don’t smoke
2. Accumulate 30-60 minutes or more of moderately intensive physical activity on most (preferably all) days of the week
3. Eat a healthy diet
Nothing radical there. Yet within three years after exiting an academy, Cashwell said, a significant percentage of officers have begun to drift away from physical fitness and healthy living.
Studies have shown that inmates are more physically conditioned than cops as a group, especially in cardiovascular fitness, claimed Cashwell, the former director of training and standards in North Carolina. “Research clearly demonstrates that police work is largely sedentary. Officers are like lifeguards—sedentary most of the time, until someone needs rescuing. This tempts us to downplay or even dismiss the need for physical fitness or readiness.”
When officers do act, a lack of fitness sometimes contributes to injuries that have breathtaking consequences. An officer injured his back lifting an exercise mat, which ultimately produced insurance claims totaling $310,000; the officer was 5 foot 8 and weighed more than 300 lbs. Another, tipping the scale at 360, slipped and fell on the job, at a cost of $172,600. Injuries to another who was hurt scuffling with a suspect who outmatched him cost $94,500; that officer was 5’ll” and weighed 315.
Monetary outlays, of course, can be incidental compared to the physical and emotional pain incurred by officers who aren’t fit enough to overcome the challenges they encounter, not to mention the risks of permanent disability or death. “That’s why the issue of fitness and wellness is so important,” Cashwell said.
He itemized 12 physical activities most often performed by police officers, according to research studies. If you can’t do these without overtaxing your capacity, you need to whip yourself into shape: running, vaulting, lifting, jumping, climbing, carrying, crawling, pushing, fighting, balancing, pulling, dragging.
Cashwell offered a couple of rudimentary measures for assessing where you stand physically. They might at least shock you into investigating further.
1. If your waist is more than 40 inches (for men) or 35 inches (for women), you’re likely at increased risk health-wise.
2. If you have any three of the following you have evidence of metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions that occur together, increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Even one symptom warrants consultation with a physician:
• central (abdominal) obesity
• high blood pressure
• high triglycerides
• low HDL cholesterol
• insulin resistance
Cashwell concluded with a valuable reminder: “Your physical fitness level may be the factor that one day saves your life.”
It wasn’t mentioned during his presentation, but the costly risk problems Cashwell surfaced inevitably raise the question: how much longer can agencies and unions resist mandatory fitness standards that will affect officers throughout their career?
[A comprehensive study on police wellness that Cashwell was involved in and that documents, among other things, the correlation between officer fitness and job performance can be accessed at: www. nclmwellness.com. Click on “Pilot Study”. Cashwell can be reached at: dcashwell8@nc.rr.com.]
GOOD ROLL CALL REMINDER
From Sgt. Adrienne Quigley of the Arlington (Va.) Police Dept., one of Cashwell’s co-presenters: “Research has shown that since 1980, approximately 1,200 officers have been killed in the line of duty. More than 30 percent could have been saved by body armor. It is estimated that the risk of dying from gunfire is 14 times higher for an officer not wearing a ballistic vest than one who is. Soft body armor has also helped protect officers from other potentially fatal situations, including blunt force trauma, fire incidents, and explosions.”
A third presenter, Gregory Tooker, president of a Massachusetts risk-management firm, pointed out that nearly 30 percent of officer injuries occur in vehicle accidents—the largest single category of injury risk. Soft body armor often provides protection there, too.
So vest up!
