When we first set out to conduct this task analysis of general duty police work we had only one goal in mind - to re-assess the validity of the Police Officers' Physical Abilities Test (commonly called "the POPAT"). This test was developed and initially validated in the mid-eighties, and since then it has been used as a selection tool by all municipal police departments throughout British Columbia in their hiring of police constables. The desire to re-assess its validity through this task analysis evolved primarily out of a concern that it may not be entirely valid today given that the work of police officers has changed in a number of ways over the past decade.
