Evaluation of Tests for the Assessment of Police Officers Physical Abilities

Abstract

Physical abilities play an important role in the performance of police work and are one of the main preconditions for the effectiveness of critical incidents resolving. Therefore, one of the methods for determining the police officers working skills is checking the basic physical abilities (BPA) and specific physical abilities (SPA) development levels. The problem in this paper was the evaluation of the BPA tests used by the police organizations and the Test for assessment of specific physical abilities of police officers (OCSAPO1). The aim of the study is to determine the battery of tests that describes the observed space from the aspect of professional orientation. The sample consisted of 99 male examinees (age 28.1 ± 6.1 years) divided into four groups: 30 ACPS students, 28 members of the General Police Unit, 17 members of the Special Anti-terrorist Unit and 22 subjects of control group. Eighteen BPA variables were used, as well as the efficiency of a job related fitness test OCSAPO1 with metabolic and functional physical activity indicators. Based on the descriptive indicators, factor analysis has determined the mutual structure and structure of quantitative relations between all BPA, SPA and metabolic variables. The analysis of communality determined that extrusion values in all variables ranged from 0.456 to 0.862. The obtained results cumulatively explained 67.51% of the variability, and four main groups of factors are distinguished. The first group is defined by the specific physical abilities of police officers, the second by maximum muscular forces, the third by variables of the rate of force development and the fourth by physiological variables. Based on the analysis of the obtained results average values, it was found that 54.86% of respondents correspond to the group they belong to. In practice, in selection and control of the BPA level, the battery of tests are used for the assessment of the police officers complete motor space. Finally, the results of this study indicate that the tests OCSAPO1, Long jump and the maximum number of pull-ups, mostly discriminate efficiency in motor space of police officers