Law Enforcement Officer Readiness: Threats and Countermeasures

Thank you

Join the Tactical SIG as we discuss LEO Readiness!

Optimizing health and occupational readiness are critical to enhancing law enforcement officers’ welfare and ability to protect citizens. Inherent occupational factors threaten officers’ health and physical ability, including cardiovascular disease, shift work, and the need to prepare for diverse occupational demands.

This presentation will explore these factors and provide practitioners with evidence-based countermeasures. Specifically, this presentation will provide recommendations for:

decreasing the risk of cardiovascular disease
training within the rhythms of officers’ shift schedules
implementation of periodization strategies to prepare for occupational demands

These topics will enhance the practitioner’s ability to develop and implement appropriate exercise programs to improve law enforcement officers' and other tactical populations' health and occupational readiness.

Relevant References:

Beck, A., Clasey, Yates, J.W., Koebke, N., Palmer, T., & Abel, M.G. Relationship of physical fitness measures versus occupational physical ability in campus law enforcement officers. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 29(8), 2340-2350, 2015.
Fullagar, H.H., Skorski, S., Duffield, R., Hammes, D., Coutts, A.J., & Meyer, T. Sleep and Athletic Performance: The effects of sleep loss on exercise performance, and physiological and cognitive responses to exercise. Sports Medicine: 1-26, 2014.
Issurin,V. Block periodization versus traditional training theory: A review. Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, 48(1),65-75, 2008.
Keeler, J.M., Fleenor, B.S., Clasey, J.L., Stromberg, A., & Abel, M.G. Predictors of arterial stiffness in law enforcement officers. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18, 10190, 2021.
Monteiro, L., Oliveira, P., Langford, E.L., & Abel, M.G. Fit for Duty: The impact of tactical gear / load carriage on occupational performance and its relationship to fitness attributes in elite police officers/operators. Congress of the European College of Sport Sciences, Seville, Spain.
NSCA’s Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, 4th ed. Ed: Gregory Haff & Travis Triplett. Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL.
Teixeira, J., Monteiro, L.F., Silvestre, R., & Beckert, J. Age-related influence on physical fitness and individual on-duty task performance of Portuguese male non-elite police officers. Biology of Sport, 36(2),163-170, 2019.
Thomas, J.M., Pohl, M., Shapiro, R., Keeler, J., &Abel, M.G. Effect of load carriage on tactical performance in special weapons and tactics operators. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 32(2), 554-564, 2018.

Description

decreasing the risk of cardiovascular disease
training within the rhythms of officers’ shift schedules
implementation of periodization strategies to prepare for occupational demands

Beck, A., Clasey, Yates, J.W., Koebke, N., Palmer, T., & Abel, M.G. Relationship of physical fitness measures versus occupational physical ability in campus law enforcement officers. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 29(8), 2340-2350, 2015.
Fullagar, H.H., Skorski, S., Duffield, R., Hammes, D., Coutts, A.J., & Meyer, T. Sleep and Athletic Performance: The effects of sleep loss on exercise performance, and physiological and cognitive responses to exercise. Sports Medicine: 1-26, 2014.
Issurin,V. Block periodization versus traditional training theory: A review. Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, 48(1),65-75, 2008.
Keeler, J.M., Fleenor, B.S., Clasey, J.L., Stromberg, A., & Abel, M.G. Predictors of arterial stiffness in law enforcement officers. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18, 10190, 2021.
Monteiro, L^., Oliveira, P., Langford, E.L., & Abel, M.G. Fit for Duty: The impact of tactical gear / load carriage on occupational performance and its relationship to fitness attributes in elite police officers/operators. Congress of the European College of Sport Sciences, Seville, Spain.
NSCA’s Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, 4th ed. Ed: Gregory Haff & Travis Triplett. Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL.
Teixeira, J., Monteiro, L.F., Silvestre, R., & Beckert, J. Age-related influence on physical fitness and individual on-duty task performance of Portuguese male non-elite police officers. Biology of Sport, 36(2),163-170, 2019.
Thomas, J.M., Pohl, M., Shapiro, R., Keeler, J., &Abel, M.G. Effect of load carriage on tactical performance in special weapons and tactics operators. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 32(2), 554-564, 2018.

Contributors

Mark Abel, Ph.D., CSCS*D, TSAC-F*D

Mark Abel is a Professor and Director of the First Responder Research Laboratory at the University of Kentucky and Research Associate at the ICPOL Police Research Center in Lisbon, Portugal. Dr. Abel conducts research to improve the safety, health, occupational readiness of firefighters and law enforcement officers. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, authored book chapters, and presented internationally. He also teaches undergraduate courses in Strength and Conditioning and Sports Nutrition and graduate courses in High Performance Coaching and Tactical Strength and Conditioning. He has served as a firefighter. He received the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s Tactical Strength and Conditioning Practitioner of the Year Award and Senior Investigator Grant to conduct research on tactical populations. Dr. Abel also owns Tactical Fitness Institute, LLC which assists fire departments and law enforcement agencies in developing legally defensible physical ability tests.
Sarah Lanham, MS, CSCS

Sarah Lanham is a doctoral student in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Promotion at the University of Kentucky and member of the First Responder Research Laboratory. Sarah received her BS and MS degrees at Georgia Southern University where she was an active member of the Tactical Athlete Initiative. Ms. Lanham has extensive experience training and conducting research with First Responder populations.
David J. Cornell, PT, DPT, PhD, CSCS*D, TSAC-F*D

David J. Cornell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy and Kinesiology, and core faculty in the Health Assessment Laboratory, at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Dr. Cornell previously completed his undergraduate BS in Exercise Science degree at Carroll University, and his graduate MS in Kinesiology, PhD in Health Sciences, and Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degrees at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Dr. Cornell's community-engaged research agenda is concentrated on the optimization of health and human performance across various populations of interest, including: tactical athletes (e.g., firefighters, police officers, etc.); elite athletes (e.g., professional athletes, collegiate student-athletes, etc.); and various clinical populations. To accomplish this agenda, Dr. Cornell leverages both laboratory and applied/clinical techniques to facilitate the investigation of musculoskeletal injury prevention programming, the non-invasive assessment of autonomic nervous system and electro-mechanical muscle function, and the enhancement of human health, fitness, and performance within these populations of interest. As a clinician-scientist, he is a licensed physical therapist (PT) and holds credentials as a Certified Exercise Physiologist (ACSM-EP), Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), and certified Tactical Strength and Conditioning Facilitator (TSAC-F). He is currently the Chair of the Education Committee of the Tactical Athlete Special Interest Group for the American Academy of Sports Physical Therapy (AASPT), and is active within the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), and American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) organizations.