To be successful, police training programs should enhance the health and physiological characteristics required by officers to perform their duties, while being conducted so as to encourage officers to maintain fitness throughout their lives. The medical screening of police personnel prior to their participation in vigorous exercise is an essential first step in initiating a fitness program, and on the basis of the medical exam and stress test results, officers should be placed into appropriate fitness groups for individualized training. Given the nature of police tasks, physical training should focus on the cardiorespiratory system, physical strength, and flexibility. Training techniques should provide for progressive physical development and a continuous prescribed training regime of sufficient intensity, duration, and frequency to maintain a given fitness level. Further, training should include warmups and cooldowns for each session, weight training, measures to reduce training injuries, and techniques of motivation that will encourage personnel to maintain lifelong fitness. Three important physiological principles in exercise prescription are (1) intensity, referring to the amount of work to be accomplished in a training session, measured by maximum oxygen uptake; (2) duration, the amount of time a person must exercise at a prescribed intensity to elicit a training effect; and (3) frequency, the number of times per week a person should train to improve or maintain a fitness level. Although it appears that females, overall, are not as fit as men nor do they have the ability to reach the same fitness level as equally trained males, many women can be sufficiently trained to meet the demands of police tasks. A total of 137 references are provided.