Elena Gocmen Rueda
SPAIN is poised to abolish the minimum height requirement for entry into its police forces in a bid to attract new recruits, especially women.
Announcing the move on Monday, Spain’s Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, said the height requirement would be scrapped in all but certain specialist units, where physical size was important.
Spain’s police forces have a current minimum height requirement of 1.65m for men and 1.60 for women.
However, the average height of men in Spain currently stands at 1.74m and 1.62m for women, according to the latest data from Datos Mundiales.
“The current regulation is more restrictive for women as its limit is only two centimetres below the average height of women, while for men the margin is up to nine centimetres”, explained Marlaska adding that the measure would encourage the recruitment of more women.
He insisted it would help remove ‘one of the glass ceilings’ that prevents women from joining the police force.
This new model will provide better trained officers, with more knowledge and better resources, and therefore greater preventive and operational capacity, he said.
The minimum height will no longer be required except for officers within the Intervention Unit, Prevention and Reaction Unit and Special Operations Group, where certain physical traits are deemed more necessary.
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