What is this foot chase course?

[sixtus]

Basically I applied for a security position with the Santa Clara County at the urging of a friend. It would pay well, and I have experience in the security industry, so why not?

Then he tells me there's to be a physical test similar to the Santa Clara County's Sheriff's without the Wall Climb. He says this contains a 500 meter dash, dummy drag, maybe a dummy lift and a foot chase course. I gather the dummy to weigh around 250 pounds. I can drag that, and I can lift it with the Fireman Carry.

But I don't know what a foot chase course is. Is it an obstacle course? Will I have to actually chase someone down and apprehend them? What should I reasonably expect?

[Ron-Solo]

Many departments have a course there you climb chain link fences, go thru a window, a crawl space opening, scale a six foot fence. It is run for time and all the obstacles are run in succession.

Pretty common for LE.

[sixtus]

Thanks man. At least I kinda know how to train now.

[Spyder]

If it's the regular POST obstacle course, you can almost do it on hands and knees and score decent. There's a couple direction changes, a hurdle that you have to go over, and a sprint. Really easy.

[P5Ret]

250 pound dummy? The heaviest one I have seen (that was not breathing, or had been at some point) was 180, 160 is about the average or at least was way back when.

[CaptMike]

165 is the current standard for most departments

[TASK, LLC]

During any testing process, LISTEN to the directions and FOLLOW directions.

Your time starts usually on your movement, but if you do not complete the "ending" action the event continues. This includes not knowing what qualifies as the "end" of the dummy drag (some candidates stop short and drop the dummy losing time) or what order to scale walls on.

Just like shooting and golf swings, Follow-Through, Follow-Through, Follow-Through.

[Notorious]

Most of them aren't that bad, with the jumping over two sawhorses and zig zag and up and down short steps (like 3 or 4) and jump a wall or something.

The worst was Burbank PD... their obstacle course is a killer and I would not pass now for sure. There was a balance beam part and a bunch of stuff that would challenge the best trained K-9 (dogs, not officers), and at the end, there is a 1' wall that they say take one leg at a time and don't even try to hop it because your legs will not have the strength and they are right... so you use your arms to lift one leg at a time over the little wall and then end event is squeezing a device that measures your grip strength after you are run to full exhaustion with both hands so they can see if you can still squeeze a trigger after a long foot pursuit.

I barely passed by a few seconds and this was in my prime in my early 20's.

[Petro6golf]

The POST course is fairly easy. You run about 100' or so, run around some cones and change direction, jump over a parking lot curb or two, jump over two sawhorse 3' hurdles (you can use your hands) and then run like 200' to the finish line. Its not that hard and an average time is about 20-25 seconds.

[retired]

The OC Sheriff's course that I took in 1974 was the hardest of all of them hands down. It was run in loose, deep beach sand that just sucked the strength out of you as you ran. I began running fast and quickly realized I wouldn't finish the course at the same rate if continued, so I slowed a bit.

They also had a balance beam, a tire set up like football players have to go thru and some other stuff that escapes my faltering memory. All I know is the others ones I took, including the dept. I eventually hired with, LASD, were a breeze compared to it. We even had to push a radio car when I took LASD's test and that was still easier.

[Che762x39]

Thanks man. At least I kinda know how to train now.

If you are in the security industry you should be training everyday.

If you are just a guard enjoy your sandwich

[Che762x39]

The OC Sheriff's course that I took in 1974 was the hardest of all of them hands down. ...

Roger that. Lets not talk about how easy pistol qualification is now

[Che762x39]

The OC Sheriff's course that I took in 1974 was the hardest of all of them hands down. ...

Roger that. Lets not talk about how easy pistol qualification is now

[Che762x39]

The OC Sheriff's course that I took in 1974 was the hardest of all of them hands down. ...

Roger that. Lets not talk about how easy pistol qualification is now