Inside Vancouver
Police Academy
By Bruce Grierson published Mar 29, 2009
Here’s one employer that’s still hiring. Think you’ve got what it takes to join the VPD? Step one: can you pass the physical-fitness test without throwing up?
If you logged on to the website of the Vancouver Police Department (Vancouver.ca/police) recently, probably the first thing you saw was a fairly in-your-face challenge: “Do you have what it takes to be one of Vancouver’s Finest?” The force is in heavy recruitment mode. Operation: Search & Employ aims to put 120 more uniforms on the street in time for the opening of the Olympics next year. And so it has been advertising across Canada, talking up the merits of a job that, while under the public microscope right now, still holds appeal to a certain kind of person. It’s virtually recession-proof. Starting pay’s decent ($52,233), and the starting happens quickly: you can go from a schlub with some college credits to a badge-brandishing flatfoot in eight brief months.
Turns out there are a lot of hoops to jump through to become a cop, including a written exam, a polygraph test, and a background check in which 30 references must vouch for your good character. But the most psychologically menacing hurdle for many is the physical exam called the POPAT: the police officers’ physical ability test.
Anyone can take the POPAT. Practice sessions used to be offered every few weeks and cost $25, but lately the VPD has been running them every Wednesday night for civilian drop-ins for free. This has had the desired effect of attracting the weekly maximum of 20 men and women, from serious would-be recruits to tire kickers there to satisfy a personal curiosity many indulge in but few get a chance to test: can I outrun a cop?
It isn’t a trivial question. It shapes the confidence you have in the people assigned to protect you, and even the way you feel about yourself. Police are forbidden to shoot at someone who’s running from them unless they have good reason to suspect that person has committed a major crime or poses a serious threat to society. (And in truth, shooting is so far down the list of options that it doesn’t even enter most officers’ minds, even as they’re in a full T.J. Hooker sprint.) So in a pinch, if you can outrun a cop you’re in the clear, with your minor transgression your own secret forever. On the other hand, knowing just how fit the average beat cop actually is may make you think twice. Either way, it’s good information to have.
