Force eases entry rules

Being tall, bilingual and with good eyesight are no longer a must for Asia's finest as the police force eases requirements beginning Friday in an attempt to fill a staggering 5,000 vacancies.

Police human resources branch chief superintendent Maxim Kwok Mei-sum said relaxing the qualifications will enhance the force's competitiveness in the manpower market as other disciplined services do not have height and weight requirements.

Currently, male candidates should be at least 1.63 meters tall and weigh at least 50 kilograms. Female candidates cannot be shorter than 1.52m and cannot weigh less than 42kg.

After considering the social environment, police believe that such height and weight requirements have limited correlation to police work, Kwok said yesterday.

She said eyesight tests will also be adjusted due to the improvement in technology.

"Since officers in most police roles can wear spectacles [and] contact lenses, candidates can also wear spectacles in an eyesight test from May 5," Kwok said. But the color vision test requirement will remain unchanged, she added.

Police will also add new Chinese and English language tests for candidates who failed to get level 2 in the Diploma of Secondary Education exams, so they do not need to wait for another year to retake.

Candidates taking police language tests will have to answer 50 to 60 multiple-choice questions on each paper. The language test results are of permanent validity.

Police personnel wing superintendent Walter Chan Kit-fung said the force received more than 100 applications from recruitment campaigns in universities in Guangdong and Fujian last November.

More recruitment activities were held last month in Beijing and Wuhan, with a hybrid mode of online and physical events in three phases. Seminars were held in the first stage to brief students on the criteria, recruitment process, welfare and duties as an officer, followed by group sharings.

The last phase comprises mock exams and interviews for the position of acting inspector. Over 600 students from more than 20 universities have joined the events, among whom 49 have filed applications.

They include undergraduate, post-graduate and even doctoral students from top institutions such as Peking and Tsinghua universities.

Some have yet to graduate but want to intern in the force, with 30 people applying for a mentorship program.

The team will return to Guangdong and Fujian from May 15 to 27 for another round of recruitment.

Chan said mainland students have "the heart to serve the community."

He cited as example a doctoral student who took the express rail from Guangdong to Wuhan to join the events. He also recalled a mother who wanted to apply for the job on behalf of her 13-year-old son, but was asked to try again when he is older.

In the last fiscal year 2022-23, 4,606 people applied for constable and 3,391 acting inspectors, similar to the 4,860 and the 3,400 the year before. Eventually 554 constables were hired last year, 14.5 percent more than 484 the year before.

Last year 165 inspectors got the job, compared with 170 in 2021-22.