How fit do you have to be to be a copper?

By Megan Lane
BBC News Online

The fitness test to join the police has been made easier to get more women on the beat. So can I - someone who's reasonably active (for an office worker) - hack it?

BBC News Online's Megan Lane gets put through her paces

In pictures

While I have never harboured a desire to be a police officer - bar the obvious appeal of dressing up in uniform and bossing people about - when the Home Office changed the fitness requirements for new recruits, my curiosity was piqued as to what it took to join the thin blue line.

The bar has been lowered to get more women on the beat - previously one in two female applicants failed the fitness test, compared with one in 20 men. Dropped is the speed and agility test - zigzagging between cones against the clock - and the endurance run has been shortened. But recruits must have a strong grip and a fair amount of upper body strength.

The aim is to recruit another 5,000 women each year

Yet it still sounds a little demanding to someone who spends much of her day sitting in front of a computer, and I wonder if my occasional runs in the park and trips to the gym mean I'm fit enough to make the grade.

But the nice people at Essex Police assure me that the test has changed because the job itself has evolved. One can only assume this means more paperwork and less sprinting after baddies. A job to which a journalist seems eminently suited after all.

Moment of truth

At the training centre in Chelmsford, I'm introduced to PT instructor Neil Wilson ("he's a lovely bloke but a hard taskmaster," warns the press officer) and to would-be recruits Wendy Deeprose and Stuart Hill.

Neil Wilson shows us how it's done

Wendy has done the test before, and grimaces as she recalls the so-called bleep test, a shuttle run which involves jogging 15-metre laps and picking up the pace each time a beep sounds.

This drill, coupled with the squeal of running shoes on the gym floor, brings back long-forgotten memories of PE lessons. But there's no time for a school daze - the countdown to the warm-up shuttle run has begun... and we're off.

At each stage, Neil, a compact powerhouse of a man, demonstrates the task ahead. He makes each activity look easy - so much so, that when I step up to take my turn, I'm taken by surprise at the level of effort required to even reach half Neil's score. (For more on the tasks - and whether I passed - see the pop-up "In Pictures" above.)

Once Neil has put us through our paces, he takes us through the results and offers hints on any areas that need improvement. For this has been a practice test for all three of us, a dummy run ahead of Wendy and Stuart's official test later this summer.

Work it

By all accounts, the test we have just completed is indeed easier, which anyone with an average level of fitness could pass with a little preparation.

Stuart aces the pull strength test

"When I first joined six years ago, we had a completely different test which also involved body fat percentage, a standing long jump and sit-ups," Neil says.

Then press-ups were added, with each person's weight and arm length dictating the number to be done. Whereas a six-footer who tipped the scales at 13 stone might have to do six, someone smaller and lighter would be set at least 25. That task, too, has been dropped, and today upper body strength is tested on a contraption that looks like a rowing machine crossed with an instrument of torture.

So did I pass? Well, should I ever want to be in the thin blue line rather than simply report on it, the long arm of the law will be a bit feeble unless I lift a few more weights.