Keep your butt on the mat for sit-ups.

Keep your body straight for push-ups.

And you’ve got 15 minutes and 50 seconds to run a mile and a half.

Otherwise, you can’t pass the Allentown Police Department fitness test.

Bill Gibson, physical fitness consultant for the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association, explained the rules last month to a group of 11 men and three women interested in police jobs.

Gibson asked the 14 potential applicants to get down for push-ups. Right away, he spotted a problem.

”Camel!” he yelled. ”Get that butt down.” The young man straightened out and did a proper push-up.

This wasn’t the test. The test isn’t even scheduled yet. This was an introduction to the test.

At the Allentown Police Academy, Gibson also gave his informal cadets a chance to try out the sit-ups and the vertical jump. Later sessions will let them practice the 11/2-mile run and the 300-meter dash.

Gibson said the free orientation sessions, first offered July 21, will be open to the public every third Tuesday of the month for at least six months at the Police Academy, 2110 Park Drive, Allentown.

”This gives everyone a chance to see what the test is all about,” said Gibson, who arranged the orientation sessions in Allentown. ”I’m tired of seeing people fail the test and saying they weren’t familiar with it.”

The sessions are to acquaint participants with Allentown’s police fitness standards, which require a 151/2-inch vertical jump, 25 push-ups, 30 sit-ups, that 11/2-mile run in 15:50, and a 300-meter dash in 66 seconds.

”It was a good opportunity to find out what they were looking for,” said Noel Cascioli, 21, of Easton, who works as an aide at an assisted living facility. ”It really opened my eyes to what I have to improve on.

”The only thing that surprised me was the jumping exercise. I was about 5 inches away. I had a real hard time with that.”

She said she has been practicing the jump at home, as Gibson advised, but it’s going to take some work to make up that 5 inches. She also is trying to speed up her 11/2-mile run.

Cascioli said she’s wanted to be a police officer since she was a girl. She will apply as soon as a position opens, she said, and she hopes to be mentally and physically prepared.

Gibson said physical tests are more important than ever to police work. From experience and from lawsuits, police departments have learned that officers have to be in shape for every emergency.

In Allentown, Gibson’s focus now is on those who want to become police. He said his next project will be to make sure the ”incumbents” — the men and women already in uniform — meet the same standards that cadets have to meet.