At the first annual CrossFit Law Enforcement Summit, officers share their CrossFit success stories. One of them is Santa Monica Police Department SWAT officer Scott McGee, who has helped his department adopt CrossFit. In Part 1, he critiques the classic long, slow method of police training and shows how he integrated CrossFit into their program.
“We snuck in a CrossFit workout without them knowing. So it helped us break the monotony of our long, slow duration,” he says of the department’s first workout. Afterward, the ranking officers were on board. In addition to CrossFit for officer training, their SWAT-officer obstacle course qualifier has been changed to the Hero WOD Murph.
McGee says adopting CrossFit has benefited the department.
“We saw that our team camaraderie went up. The enthusiasm to actually do some physical training went up,” he says.
In Part 2, officer LeAnn Alfonzo of the San Jose Police Department shares another method of bringing CrossFit to police training.
“Everybody is going to start doing this, you know, police and fire and military. We need to be the leaders on this,” she says.
Through Alfonzo’s efforts, the San Jose Police Department adopted CrossFit through a large grant and has made CrossFit part of its wellness program. To integrate CrossFit with a police department, Alfonzo says you need funding, authorization, support and autonomy.
“Your administrators and the city are where the funding is coming from. They want results,” Alfonzo says. “So not only do you have to try and make your officers better physically, but you have to be able to show something to your administration.”
Alfonzo says the results of CrossFit training have been astounding. In addition, CrossFit has reduced stress and injuries and has improved biological markers and morale.
Part 1:
20min 49sec
Part 2:
22min 28sec
Additional reading: Police Training by Greg Glassman, published March 1, 2003.