The Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) has announced to scrap the minimum height and weight requirements for new recruits as part of its latest bid to step up recruitment efforts amid more than 5,000 vacancies.
Starting on Friday, those who are interested in applying to become a police constable, probationary inspector or an auxiliary police constable in the city will enjoy relaxed entry requirements, the Force announced in a statement on Wednesday.
The removal of the height and weight requirements aligns the police with other disciplined services, the Force said. At present, male police candidates cannot be shorter than 163 centimetres and should weigh at least 50 kilograms. Female applicants should be at least 152 cm tall and weigh no less than 42 kg.
Police also axed the requirement for candidates who wear corrective lenses to take an unaided visual acuity test. An applicant would be considered having met the eyesight standard if they managed to pass the test while wearing spectacles or contact lens, the statement read. But the requirement for candidates to undergo a colour perception test will remain unchanged.
A new language test will also be launched to give candidates an alternative way to fulfil the language proficiency requirement. Candidates taking the Recruit Police Constable Written Examination will sit for a General Chinese Test and a General English Test, police said, adding that the result would be permanently valid.
The assessment was benchmarked against the Level Two grade in the city’s university entrance examination, which is the current language proficiency threshold for joining the Force.
“The HKPF has adopted proactive recruitment strategies to attract high calibre candidates who possess the competence to become a police officer,” a police spokesperson said.
“The HKPF will keep abreast of the times and regularly review its recruitment policy to maintain competitiveness in the human resources market,” the spokesman added.
In January, Commissioner of Police Raymond Siu said the Force had around 27,000 personnel and more than 5,000 openings. The recruitment work of the police has been “rather challenging” in recent years, the top brass admitted, citing a wave of retirement and the increased demand for manpower by different disciplined services amid major infrastructure projects in the city.
Last March, police relaxed residency requirements for applicants of certain positions to attract more people to the Force.
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