In 1997, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted a study that examined forty cases of "serious assault" against a member of the force of order at the national level. Of the fifty-two officers involved in the incidents, forty-seven reported themselves to be in "excellent" health at the time. Each of these officers was involved in some type of physical fitness program, typically weightlifting and/or running. In these “serious assault” cases, law enforcement officers regularly attributed their survival of the incident to maintaining a high level of physical fitness. (Pinizzotto, et al, 2006) Facts about Police Physical Fitness To become a police officer, all candidates must attend and graduate from a police academy. As part of training at the academy, physical fitness is very important for cadets. At the police academy, cadets must pass one or two physical fitness tests, depending on the state and law enforcement agency. Each test is designed to evaluate and test the cadet's physicality and resilience. The first test is a type of obstacle course established by academy directors, which tests the cadet's ability to perform specific tasks of the job, such as climbing a fence and running across urban terrain. The second test is the one developed by the Cooper Institute and consists of one minute of push-ups, one minute of sit-ups, a mile-and-a-half run and a 400-meter sprint. (Cooper Institute) However, once cadets pass the fitness test and graduate from the police academy, a police officer is not required to maintain those fitness standards. (Quigley, 2008) Consequently, in the criminal justice system, the physical fitness of the police officer is called into question. Th...... middle of paper ......ch, T.S., Sharma, A., Padwal, R., Sui, X., et al. (2011). Edmonton obesity staging system: association with weight history and mortality risk. Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism, 36(4), 570-576. Smith, J., & Tooker, G. (2005, February 28). Health and fitness in law enforcement: A voluntary model program response to a critical problem. CALEA Update Magazine, 87. Retrieved March 8, 2014, from http://www.calea.org/calea-update-magazine/issue-87/health-and-fitness-law-enforcement-voluntary-model-program-response -cKlick, J., & Tabarrok, A. (2005). Using terrorist alert levels to estimate the effect of policing on crime. The Journal of Law and Economics, 48(1), 267-279. Pinizzotto, A., Davis, E., & III, . M. (2006). Violent encounters: A study of criminal assaults against our nation's law enforcement officers. Washington DC: Federal Bureau of Investigation.