Executive Summary

The Denver Police Department implemented OTO’s readiness assessment technology in its police academy in the fall of 2023, following a catastrophic training incident that fundamentally changed how the department approaches recruit fitness and safety. Paired with a professional strength and conditioning program from BarWis, OTO’s physiological monitoring system has delivered measurable, significant results across every metric the department tracks.

In just two full academy cycles, Denver has seen lost workdays due to training injuries drop from approximately 400 per year to 78—an 80% reduction. Workers’ compensation costs have fallen dramatically. Graduation rates are up. Written exam scores have improved. And the program has survived significant city-wide budget cuts—a testament to the value leadership sees in the results.

The program is now expanding organically from the police academy to Denver’s SWAT team, with plans to bring OTO into the fire department as next-generation wristband hardware becomes available.

At a glance

The Challenge

A Wake-Up Call

The Denver Police Department trains approximately 100 new officers per year through its police academy. Like most law enforcement training programs, the academy involves intense physical demands—defensive tactics, pursuit scenarios, endurance drills—layered on top of the cognitive load of learning legal frameworks, procedures, and tactical decision-making.

Before implementing OTO, the department was experiencing significant injury-related costs. Lost workdays from academy training injuries were running in the 400-day range annually, with corresponding workers’ compensation expenses placing a substantial burden on the city’s budget.

Then a catastrophic event forced a fundamental rethinking of the department’s approach. A recruit with an undiagnosed underlying sickle cell condition suffered a severe medical crisis during training. With no prior symptoms, there had been no warning signs through conventional screening. The recruit ultimately lost both legs and one arm.

“We recognized that OTO Coach, through the readings it gives you—the central nervous system, the heart rate §—there were probably some flags or markers that we would have had at the time that would have helped us mitigate that situation.”

— Rene Macias, Denver Department of Safety

This tragedy became the catalyst for change. The department committed to making physical fitness monitoring a priority—not just for performance, but for the safety and protection of every recruit who walks through the door.

The Hidden Costs of Training Injuries

Beyond the human toll, training injuries create a cascading financial problem for law enforcement agencies. When a recruit is injured and cannot return within approximately two weeks, they lose enough skill proficiency that they must be rolled into the next academy class. This means the city has already invested in their training—salary, instructor time, facilities—only to start the clock over. Multiply that across dozens of injuries per year, and the financial drain becomes significant.

The Solution

OTO Readiness Assessment + Professional Strength & Conditioning

In the fall of 2023, the Denver Police Department deployed OTO’s readiness assessment technology across its police academy, pairing it with a professional strength and conditioning program from BarWis—a performance company that works with NHL teams and other elite organizations, and was already familiar with OTO’s technology.

The program works as a two-part system:

Daily Readiness Assessment with OTO

Each participating recruit takes a short, non-invasive physiological assessment using OTO’s medical-grade wearable technology. In under five minutes, OTO measures over 50 metrics across three systems that no other commercial device assesses simultaneously:

• Central Nervous System (via DC-EEG) — brain readiness, cognitive function, and mental fatigue state

• Autonomic Nervous System (via HRV) — cardiac readiness, stress balance, and recovery state

• Cardiac Function (via ECG) — energy supply systems and aerobic/anaerobic readiness

The results populate OTO’s group coaching dashboard, giving instructors a clear red/yellow/green readiness view of every recruit before training begins.

Data-Driven Training Adaptation

The BarWis strength and conditioning team reviews the OTO group dashboard each morning alongside the academy’s training instructor. Together, they make real-time decisions about how to structure the day’s physical training:

• Recruits showing green readiness receive more demanding programming—speed, power, and high-intensity work

• Recruits showing yellow or red are redirected to lower-intensity work—endurance, coordination, skill development, or active recovery

• No recruit is excluded from training; the type and intensity of work is adapted to their physiological state that day

“They’ll figure out: okay, this group will move over here, these are the exercises we’ll do with them. And then the ones that are all greens, we’ll give them a different set of exercises. Ultimately, what we found is that collectively, they tend to be better than they were in any of the previous academies we’ve ever had.”

— Rene Macias, Denver Department of Safety

On-Site Champion: The Certified Coach Model

A critical success factor in Denver’s implementation is having an on-site champion who bridges the gap between the technology and daily operations. Shelby, a police officer and academy instructor who is also a certified coach and nutritionist, was trained by BarWis to manage the program day-to-day. She reviews OTO data, adjusts programming when the BarWis team isn’t on-site, and has become the internal evangelist who organically expanded the program to Denver’s SWAT team.

The Results

After two full academy cycles with OTO and BarWis, the Denver Police Department has seen improvements across every key metric—from injury rates to academic performance to operational readiness.

Dramatic Reduction in Training Injuries

The department’s risk management dashboard tells a clear story:

Beyond Injury Prevention: Performance and Decision-Making

While the primary goal was risk mitigation, the performance benefits have been equally compelling. Recruits in the OTO-monitored program are arriving at graduation fitter, healthier, and better prepared for the demands of active duty than any prior class.

“The risk mitigation part of it is much more important to us. But because we put so much emphasis on that, the side effect was that we also have better performing individuals that are fitter, healthier than they were when they came in the front door.”

— Rene Macias, Denver Department of Safety

Critically, the benefits extend beyond physical fitness. Improved written exam scores suggest that the regulated nervous system and reduced physiological stress translate directly into better cognitive function—clearer thinking, better retention, and improved learning capacity.

“My end goal is that when they transition to the street, because they’re in a healthier mindset, they’re actually able to make tactical decisions in a much better environment with clarity—so they don’t put themselves in a position of getting in trouble with use of force.”

— Rene Macias, Denver Department of Safety

This insight—that physiological readiness directly impacts tactical decision-making under stress—may be the most important finding for the broader law enforcement community. Officers who graduate in a better-regulated physiological state are better equipped to make sound split-second decisions in the field.

Surviving Budget Cuts: Proof of Value

“We’ve had some pretty significant budget cuts, but this is one program that we haven’t cut.”

— Rene Macias, Denver Department of Safety

In an environment where city budgets are under pressure and every line item faces scrutiny, the OTO program has earned its place. The reduction in workers’ compensation costs alone provides clear return on investment, and the improved graduation rates reduce the hidden costs of recycling injured recruits through subsequent academy classes.