Law Enforcement (Police / Sheriff)
Varies by state & agency (e.g., POPAT, state POST agility tests)
Data updated: 2026-08-19 (verified vs primary service regulations)
How the screen works
There is no single federal body-composition standard for law enforcement. Most agencies use a validated physical agility test; some screen BMI or body composition locally. Standards differ by state POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training) and by department.
Reading the age-normed ladder
The table above is a ladder rather than a single number, and the width of that ladder is worth knowing before you compare yourself against a colleague. Across the 0 bands listed for Police / LE, the men's ceiling spans 0 percentage points and the women's spans 0. Because one band covers every age group here, age does not change the allowance for this service — the same figure applies to the youngest and oldest personnel alike.
DoD Instruction 1308.03 also sets an outer corridor: no branch may be stricter than 18% (men) / 26% (women), and none may be looser than 26% (men) / 36% (women). For Police / LE the tightest men's band is 0% and the most permissive is 0%, with women's bands running from 0% to 0%. Every band here sits inside the corridor rather than pressed against its limits.
Check your measurements
Run your numbers against the Police / LE standard in the multi-branch go/no-go checker.
Open checker →Printable scorecard
Take a clean one-page summary of this branch's screen to your weigh-in.
Get scorecard →Source & verification
- Primary: Per-agency / state POST standards
- Retrieved and verified: 2026-08-19. Standards change — confirm with the official regulation or your command before any official assessment.