Phoenix Police Commander Kim Humphrey will advise police leaders around the country on ways to reduce “roid rage” in law enforcement at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference in San Diego on November 9, 2008. It seems that the use of anabolic steroids by police officers could threaten the lives of the public at large presumably due to violent aggression of roid rage (“Police Dept. leads way on steroid testing,” October 9).
“Steroids can be a life-safety issue, not only for the user, but for the public,” said Humphrey, who is speaking at a national conference in November alongside Dr. Gary Green, a UCLA sports medicine expert and adviser to Major League Baseball on anabolic steroids.
The Phoenix Police Department, the Phoenix Fire Department and the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association joined forces to create the Phoenix Steroids Task Force after the widespread steroid use was exposed by local media, a DEA probe and an internal investigation. It appears that police officers were trying to gain an unfair advantage over criminals (“Phoenix a pioneer in steroid-testing policy,” October 19).
Like athletes who ignore testosterone-induced side effects to gain a competitive edge on the field, a handful of Valley law-enforcement officers were investigated because authorities believed they were using anabolic steroids to gain an edge on the streets.
Of course such “cheating” was unacceptable and the lack of a “level playing field” between police and criminals would not be tolerated. Thus, Phoenix became the first major city to implement a random anabolic steroid testing policy among law enforcement in 2006. The Phoenix Steroids Task Force recently announced the completion of 3,600 random steroid tests with six positive results.
“Clearly, doing the test is not designed to catch people…
[…]
“It’s designed to be a deterrent,” Humphrey said. “It’s not like in a sport where you just say, ‘You can’t play anymore.’ This is a career. It’s their job.”
Sure, it is completely different from elite professional sports. Those guys are just having fun playing a game. They don’t mind if you tell them they can’t play anymore!
The Phoenix Steroids Task Force also created another deterrent in the form of a 30-minute DVD entitled “Anabolic Steroids: Building Body or Body Destruction” to educate recruits about the dangers of anabolic steroids.
“The Phoenix Police Department – Protecting Each Member of the Community from Roid Rage!”
About the author
Millard writes about anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs and their use and impact in sport and society. He discusses the medical and non-medical uses of anabolic-androgenic steroids while advocating a harm reduction approach to steroid education.
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