Associations between Specialist Tactical Response Police Unit Selection Success and Urban Rush, along with 2.4 km and 10 km Loaded Carriage Events

Rhiannon Thomas, Ben Schram, Shane Irving, Jeremy Robinson and Robin Orr
Additional contact information
Rhiannon Thomas: Physiotherapy Department, Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond University, Gold Coast 4226, Australia
Ben Schram: Physiotherapy Department, Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond University, Gold Coast 4226, Australia
Shane Irving: Tactical Research Unit, Bond University, Gold Coast 4226, Australia
Jeremy Robinson: Australian Federal Police, Canberra 2601, Australia
Robin Orr: Physiotherapy Department, Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond University, Gold Coast 4226, Australia

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 19, 1-9

Abstract: Officers serving in specialist tactical response police teams are highly trained personnel who are required to carry heavy loads and perform explosive tasks. The aim of this study was to determine whether performance on a loaded explosive occupational task (urban rush) or distance-based load carriage tasks (2.4 km or 10 km) were indicative of officer success on a specialist selection course (SSC). Eighteen male police officers (mean age = 32.11 ± 5.04 years) participated in the SSC over five consecutive days. Data were categorized into Group 1 (successful applicants, n = 11) and Group 2 (unsuccessful applicants, n = 7). Independent sample t -tests were performed to determine differences between groups, along with point-biserial correlations to investigate associations between anthropometric and event performance data and course completion success. Alpha levels were set at p = 0.05 a priori. Height ( p = 0.025), body weight ( p = 0.007), and 2.4 km loaded performance ( p = 0.013) were significantly different between groups, where being shorter (r pb (16) = −0.526, p < 0.05), lighter (r pb (16) = −0.615, p < 0.01), and faster (r pb (16) = −0.572, p < 0.05) were associated with course success. While a loaded 2.4 km event is associated with success, a ceiling effect for an explosive anaerobic task and a longer 10 km task may exist, whereby increases in performance are not associated with selection success.

Keywords: police; SWAT; tactical; fitness; selection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/19/3558/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/19/3558/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:19:p:3558-:d:269825

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().