In response to a record number of retirements, the NYPD substantially lowered the physical standards for becoming a police officer. The New York Post reports that leadership is now scrambling to replenish the ranks. The department reportedly replaced a fake 6-foot wall inside the Police Academy gym with an easier-to-climb chain-link fence. The action was taken after a video showed several out-of-shape, want-to-be officers embarrassingly attempting and failing to climb up and over the wall last year.
Before starting their six months of training at the school in Flushing, Queens, prospective officers must pass a physical assessment known as the “Job Standard Test,” which consists of six activities. According to the NYPD recruitment videos on YouTube, the 3-minute, 28-second time restriction that was in effect in 2019 was increased by nearly a full minute to 4:28 to increase the passing rate.
One dissatisfied officer said that passing the fitness test, which involves continuously sprinting up and down a six-step staircase and using weight equipment to simulate fending off a suspect, is “really not hard.” The seasoned officer noted that “If you can’t pass the basic requirements for being a police officer, you shouldn’t be one.”
Additionally, the NYPD eliminated a policy that required candidates to run 1.5 miles in 14:21 or less to pass the academy. Although the 1.5-mile run hasn’t been formally abandoned, senior officials are reportedly considering doing away with it. One source claimed that this is because “so many people are retiring in droves and they have to fill these positions.”
The Post revealed over the weekend that more than 2,100 police officers had retired or departed the NYPD this year, breaking the previous record of 1,535 officers leaving the department in the first half of 2020 amid the COVID-19 outbreak. The NYPD was reportedly aiming to employ 1,009 new officers, but the academy class that graduated on Friday only had 561 new officers.
An NYPD representative defended the lower standards, saying, “Our physical fitness requirements in the Police Academy have been reviewed and approved by [the] New York State Division of Criminal Justice Service and the NYPD will continue to abide by any guidelines issued by the state.”
