‘Cooper test’ receives backlash from Nebraska police departments
Posted By: Nicole Cousins
Being a police officer in Nebraska means more than just enforcing the law.
As of April 2014, all police recruits have to pass what’s known as the Cooper test, a test of physical strength and endurance.
"The state has adopted physical fitness as a standard as a bar you have to get over to be able to get in,” Beatrice Police Chief Bruce Lang, “To get over because if you don’t get into the academy you cant be a police officer."
The test is made of five components: a vertical jump, pushups, sit–ups, a 300 meter and 1.5 mile run.
Scores are weighted by gender and age.
Some police chiefs think the state is out of line with its requirements.
Local departments have a separate system to choose recruits, but recruits still have to attend and pass the police academy to become a police officer.
"To get into that academy you have to pass the cooper test.” Lang said. “And to graduate from the academy you have to pass it. And so we hire that person and send them and then in essence we hire them and then another agency can say no…you’re out.
Lang says his recruits perform the test before being hired…but veterans of the force aren’t required to be retested.
To him, the best solution is to get rid of the test altogether.
"It would become a very difficult proposition when you look at your people that are already with your department, have already been there a number of years, and have a variety of different tasks that they’re asked to do."
The test has already been thrown out at the federal level after an FBI analyst sued the agency over its fitness regulations in 2012.
Officials in Nebraska are forming a committee to try to figure out an amendment to the test, but there’s no word on when or if the cooper test will be eliminated from the academy here.
