Fat, weak and slow is no way to be a cop – or is it?
The NYPD has dramatically eased fitness requirements to become a city cop amid a record wave of retirements that are desperate for warm bodies to fill the ranks, The Post has learned.
The department replaced a 6-foot false wall inside the Police Academy gym with an easier-to-climb chain-link fence, according to official recruiting videos posted online.
The move comes after a mobile phone was used last year to film a series of out-of-shape wannabe cops laughingly trying – and failing – to get up and walk over a wall.
A copy of the compilation video obtained by The Post shows one applicant hanging his head in shame after two futile attempts.
“Overcoming the Barrier” is one of six tasks that comprise a physical exam known as the “Job Standards Test” that prospective police officers must pass before beginning their six-month training at the academy in Flushing, Queens.
And to increase the speed of passage, the time limit of 3 minutes and 28 seconds that was in force in 2019. was extended by nearly a full minute — to 4:28 — last year, according to NYPD recruitment videos posted on YouTube.
One disgusted police officer said it was “really not hard” to pass the fitness test, which involves constantly running up and down six flights of stairs and using a weight machine meant to mimic a fight with a suspect.
“If you can’t meet the basic requirements to be a police officer, you shouldn’t be,” said the veteran officer.
In addition to easing the standard job test, the NYPD appears to have scrapped a rule that required recruits to run 2.5 miles in 14:21 or less to graduate from the academy.
That qualification is published on the official website which contains a 2019 video detailing the JST, but is not part of another which contains last year’s video.
Sources said the 1.5-mile run had not been officially eliminated, but that the top brass was considering scrapping it, with one saying: “So many people are dropping out in droves and they have to fill these spots.”
Last weekend, The Post reported that more than 2,100 officers retired or left the NYPD amid a record 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 pandemics.
Meanwhile, Friday’s graduating academy class consisted of just 561 new officers, just over half of the 1,009 sources said the NYPD hopes to hire.
The city began accepting applications for the NYPD written exam on June 8. The application deadline is July 15, and testing should begin on August 12.
In a prepared statement Tuesday, an NYPD spokesman said, “Our Police Academy physical fitness requirements have been reviewed and approved by [the] The New York State Department of Criminal Justice and the NYPD will continue to comply with all guidelines issued by the state.”
