Height and weight rule axed for cops

HEIGHT and weight requirements for police officers and other uniformed services have been scrapped.

Until yesterday officers in France needed to be at least 1.60m tall, not obese and have decent elocution.

The rules, which were scrapped in the Journal Officiel applied to jobs such as police officers, prison guards and customs officers.

New criteria for officers will be based on their skills using firearms, eye sight, their general behaviour and a medical exam.

"Someone who can't run 1,300m will not be accepted," a spokesman for the Ministry of Work and Civil Servants told Le Figaro.

However, he said the criteria would not be the same for all aspects of policing or security, for example research labs would not need the same physical requirements.

A statement from the ministry said the relaxed rules would "open up the administration to all French without exception."

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