The LEOPARD PROGRAM™

The Law Enforcement Officer Performance And Reaction Drill. There are four phases to the Leopard program. Each of these phases are listed below.

• The LEOPARD Program: is a turnkey solution for police officer fitness, a platform from which to build health and wellness, improve morale and productivity, create goodwill and demonstrate to the public the basic fitness and skills required of every law enforcement officer.

Officer fitness is an issue. But finding a cost-effective approach that makes sense and creates excitement has been an elusive target. Now, Drs. Paul Davis and Jack O'Connor have designed a high profile, exciting and fun way to police officer fitness that incorporates skills training, health and wellness, and is a marked departure from the tired, staid academic ways of the past. The LEOPARD is putting a fresh face on the law enforcement fitness equation. The LEOPARD Program is a comprehensive approach to fitness that has four primary components.

• The LEOPARD Challenge: an intense, friendly and spirited inter- and intramural competition that takes place on a defined obstacle course. The LEOPARD Challenge is the national competitive level of the LEOPARD Program. It is a spirited and friendly competition based on physical and policing skills routinely encountered in the law enforcement setting. It demonstrates the highest level of police officer fitness and is completely voluntary. Racing against the clock and each other, officers sequentially negotiate the series of linked policing tasks, including laser-shooting scenarios. There are team (3-5 individuals) as well as age („40; „50) and men and women's open categories.

The LEOPARD Challenge is law enforcement's public platform where the real requirements of policing are demonstrated to the citizenry. This is where a newfound respect and admiration for law enforcement is being built as the best men and women officers showcase their fitness and skills.

The National LEOPARD Tour conducts regional LEOPARD Challenge competitions across the United States and Canada that each year culminate in national and world championship events. These final events are broadcast on television.

• The FRI LEOPARD Instructor:  a train-the-trainer certification
program. LEOPARD Instructor Certification First Reponder Institute LEOPARD Instructor (FRILI) certification is a hands-on, no BS, wellness instruction and certification program for peer trainers and fitness mentors. It is appropriate for leaders and coordinators of department fitness programs.

Here's how the program works
Departments select LEOPARD Instructor-candidates (LI-recommended 1 per 20 officers). They attend one of our regional 3-day certification programs. They'll receive intense hands-on training from our team of nationally recognized Health and Fitness Instructors. They'll challenge our rigorous testing program and upon demonstration of competence, be awarded certification as a LEOPARD Instructor. In the meantime, departments can purchase the course props needed to administer the LEOPARD™ Challenge, a 10-station fitness course, based upon a scientific job-task analysis (JTA) of what police officers actually do. Department's may also arrange for the hosting of Leopard Training Seminars, through the First Responder Institute.

Back on the job, they'll set up the voluntary, non-punitive LEOPARD Club where membership is based upon successful running of the LEOPARD Course. The LEOPARD Club becomes a department's fitness program based on the local performance standard. Officers who meet the standard earn National LEOPARD Fitness Awards that include distinctive tee shirts, ball caps, pins and ribbons for display on duty uniforms.

• The LEOPARD Club - The local organization that recognizes and awards performance of its members through an incentive program based upon completion of the LEOPARD courseThe LEOPARD Cub
*The LEOPARD Cub recruit program: is a police specific fitness program
aimed at recruits and academy cadets. This program is supported by the fitness and skills training conducted by local academies. The concept is to use the LEOPARD Course requirements as an evaluating tool to determine if cadets are fit and "street ready". The local academy program of instruction is supplemented with fitness training and classes aimed at improving performance on the tasks contained in the LEOPARD. Certified LEOPARD Instructors teach and conduct the program. A positive system of rewards for demonstrated performance accompanies the program (LEOPARD hats, shirts, course time based pins). The idea is to inculcate job-related fitness and performance as a way of life for young officers in a manner that will stay with them through out their entire careers.

*The LEOPARD Officers Club:
The LEOPARD Club is the on duty fitness program for sworn officers. It is where LEOPARD Instructors work with peers to ensure they meet job performance requirements. The 10-station LEOPARD Course is used as both the training system and the evaluation tool. Fitness is defined by completing the LEOPARD course in the time set by the local department as the performance standard.

The LEOPARD Course combines both fitness and basic policing skills to provide a better method of training than the tired old academic approach of running, push-up, sit-ups and the like. It can be supplemented by fitness training or just performed over and over again to produce a specific training effect directly linked to job performance. The LEOPARD Instructor is available as a peer to assist fellow officers in both fitness training and as a performance coach on the LEOPARD Course.

The LEOPARD CLUB is designed to be non-punitive. Officers enter the LEOPARD Club by meeting the department performance standards on the LEOPARD Course. Fitness is individually driven in that individual officers must work until they meet the standard which is simply judged go/no-go. They are rewarded based on their performance with an array of pins (which can be worn on the duty uniform), t-shirts, hats, etc. The LEOPARD Club awards are nationally recognized and transportable between departments as a result of the LEOPARD Program and LEOPARD Course being a standardized and recognized fitness evaluation methodology. Departments may also offer other perks to this program to enhance participation in this program.