Leading from the front

Sam Boyer at Dom Post reports:

After 400 metres of running, climbing, and “hanging on like a limpet”, the country’s top cop came out smiling – and put 294 of his staff to shame.

Commissioner Peter Marshall completed the police physical competency test yesterday and, in doing so, the 59-year-old also showed up the hundreds of officers who were deemed unfit last week to hold frontline posts. …

The commissioner ran the course in 2 minutes and 56 seconds, earning himself a “gold card”. Because he holds a rank higher than inspector, he is not required to pass the test, but wanted to set an example.

“If I can do it, there’s no reason why others can’t do it. It was a matter of walking the talk. I wanted to be able to look operational staff in the eye and say that I’ve got it.

The current Commissioner seems to be near universally respected by the rank and file – which certainly has not always been the case for that role.

Completion times for the course are determined by an officer’s age and gender. The commissioner needed to get round the course in 3 minutes and 26 seconds, so he was 30 seconds under par.

To earn the star-performer gold card, he also needed to successfully scale the 1.8-metre-high wall.

“Anyone over 50 just has to tap it [the wall] … To get the gold card, you have to go over the top,” Mr Marshall said.

The wall was the most gruelling of the 10 challenges in the test, he said – especially with staff watching his performance.

The other tests were:

– Pushing a car trailer 10 metres

– Carrying a car wheel assembly 10 metres

– Running 200 metres

– Walking a five-metre right-angle beam, a metre off the ground

– Jumping a 1.8-metre long jump

– Running around cones and under and over hurdles for 30 metres

– Climbing through a one-metre-high window

– Climbing over a solid 1.8-metre-high wall

– Dragging a body 7.5 metres

– Climbing a 2.2-metre-high wire fence

Not sure I’d want to try that!