Rules for entering the PSP police force have changed today – increasing the ‘maximum age limit’ by five years, and doing away entirely with ‘minimum height requirements’.
Candidates still have to be ‘of Portuguese nationality’; physically robust; ‘with a psychological profile indispensable to the exercise of police functions’; educated up to 12th year level and without any kind of criminal record.
But they can, as of today, be ‘up to the age of 35’ when they apply – and their height, which used to be clearly stipulated (a minimum of 1.65m for men, 1.60m for women) is now not an issue at all. Candidates can be any height, as long as they fit all the other requirements.
The government has justified the changes as widening the pool of potential candidates. They come only three years on from the last tweaks, again aimed at widening the pool of potential candidates (in 2022, the minimum age for entering was 19, it then changed to 18, at which point it stays; and the maximum age for entering was 27, passing to 30 and now increasing by another five years).
All this indicates just how wide the ‘net’ has to be thrown: a service that didn’t have trouble recruiting in the ‘good old days’, is now fraught with employment issues and hurdles. As reports today explain, in the 90s, the PSP regularly had more than 16,000 candidates. In 2012, this number had fallen to just 10,000 a year – and more recently the service has been lucky to muster more than 4,000.
Highlighting just how much things have deteriorated, today saw a PSP syndicate (SIAP) and two from the GNR (ANSG and ASPIG) protesting outside parliament for ‘better conditions/ better pay’, which they say the government doggedly refuses to move on.
SIAP President Carlos Torres referred to the government’s lack of interest in negotiating leading police into an “ever deepening abyss”.
Bottom line: by allowing older and smaller entrants, the government is not really grasping the nettle here.
Source: LUSA/ Público
