http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/document/1378398/cadet_physical_readiness_testing

The DOJ complaint says the requirements have nothing to do with the ability of the applicant to do the job. The pdf says differently.

Oh the quandary of who knows jobs better – some lawyer at a desk at the DOJ? Or the people actually doing the job?

Also the physical standards show a commitment to wanting to be a LEO. In some ways when you look at the standards, anyone who could not do them just didn’t give a rat’s patootie to be prepared for a career. I think that too matters in qualifying or being considered for the training as the training – even just starting it – is costly and time consuming.

Vertical Jump – 18 inches, 3 Attempts
1 RM Bench Press – 85% Body Weight
Illinois Agility Run – 19.5 Seconds, 2 Attempts
300-Meter Run – 65 Seconds
Push Ups – 30 Repetitions (no time limit)
1.5 Mile Run – 14 Minutes and 50 Seconds

The DOJ press release to which Walter links says the DOJ is challenging the physical fitness tests, but does not describe them, or indicate just what the “disparate impact” really is.

So I read the complaint, which says that the state requires applicants to run 300 meters within an unspecified time limt, do an unstated number of pushups and situps, and run 1.5 miles, again in an unspecified time limit. Call me jaded, but I am guessing that there are different minimum requirements for me and women, and the minimums have been intentionally omitted from the complaint because they are embarassingly easy to satisfy. And in that regard, the complaint does say that about 98% of men and about 70% of women pass the physical fitness test. The CrossFit games, this ain’t.

So maybe, just maybe, these tests are keeping some small number of physically unfot women from a career that does, in fact, require some minimal level of physical fitness?

And think about the fact that the federal government is now imposing untold costs on a state, and seeking to second-guess its requirements for state officers, because 30% of women applicants can’t run 1.5 miles in time, or do some small number of pushups. 30%! What are we talking here, a few thousand unsuccessful applicants, at most? It’s as if no matter is small enough to earn the ire of the radicals in the DOJ. And let’s keep this in mind next time the DOJ complains that it is “underfunded” and can’t do its job without more money.