NYPD facilitates physical fitness tests after increased retirement periods

Fat, weak, and sluggish isn’t a way to become a cop – or is it?

NYPD has greatly eased the fitness requirements to become a city policeman Record wave of retirements The “Washington Post” learned that this has a copper desperate for warm bodies to fill the ranks

The department replaced a 6-foot false wall inside the police academy’s gymnasium with a chain-link fence that’s easy to climb, according to official recruitment videos posted online.

The move came after a cell phone was used last year to record a series of idling cops who hilariously try – and fail – to get up on a wall.

A copy of the compilation video obtained by The Post shows one applicant hanging his head in shame after two failed attempts.

“Barrier Surmount” is one of six assignments comprising a physical test known as the “Standard Job Test” that prospective policemen must pass before beginning six months of training at the academy in Flushing, Queens.

To boost the success rate, the time limit was 3 minutes 28 seconds in 2019 I was For about a full minute — as of 4:28 — last year, according to NYPD recruitment videos posted on YouTube.

“It’s not really hard” to pass the fitness test, which involves repeatedly running up and down a six-step ladder and using a weight machine that’s supposed to simulate the suspect’s struggle, said a disgusted policeman.

“If you can’t pass the basic requirements of being a police officer, you shouldn’t be one,” said the veteran cop.

In addition to facilitating standard job testing, the NYPD appears to have repealed a rule that required recruits to run 1.5 miles at 14:21 or less to graduate from the academy.

This qualification is posted on an official webpage detailing the 2019 JST video, but it is not part of another video from last year.

Sources said the 1.5-mile run has not been officially eliminated but that senior officers are considering canceling it, with one saying, “A lot of people are retiring in droves and they have to fill these positions.”

Last weekend, The Post reported that more than 2,100 cops have retired or left the NYPD amid a crashing mass exodus this year, surpassing the 1,535 who left the force during the first six months of 2020, amid the deadly first wave of COVID. -19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, the academy class that graduated Friday consisted of just 561 new police officers, just over half of the 1,009 that sources said the NYPD had hoped to hire.

The city began accepting applications for the NYPD written exam on June 8. The deadline for registration is July 15, and the exam is scheduled to begin on August 12.

In a prepared statement on Tuesday, a NYPD spokesperson said: “Our physical fitness requirements at the Police Academy have been reviewed and approved by [the] The New York State Department of Criminal Justice Service and the New York Police Department will continue to adhere to any guidelines issued by the state.”