The police are withdrawing and will not change the physical requirements to enter GEO
The National Police will revert to its original offer and will not change the physical requirements it requires to gain a place on the specialist access course Special Operations Group (GEO), the only unit of the corps without the presence of women in its operational part. The requirements for applicants will be practically the same as for the last call issued at the end of 2019 for 13 vacancies.
As you managed to find out The Independent, The General Directorate will present at the meeting that the Committee on Personnel and Regulatory Projects of the Police Council will hold on October 28 a new project that introduces some essential changes regarding the basics of the GEO course, to which the said authority gave the green light Until the end of September . The change comes after controversy arose when the lowering of physical requirements was widely interpreted as being made to facilitate access for women in line with other measures the Home Office is promoting to promote equality. One of them is the removal of the minimum height for entering the enclosure, which was approved by the Council of Ministers this Tuesday.
Far from taking that reading for granted, police sources have told this newspaper that changes due to be introduced this year have made the entrance exams “more difficult”, clashing with the National Police Gender Equality Office’s criteria (ONIG). This body considered that the requirements were still not very inclusive, so it was decided to keep the conditions that guided the last call.
The police council agreed two weeks ago that the endurance test would go from eight to three kilometers to be covered in a maximum of 12 minutes. Now you will fix and maintain 8000 meters, a distance at which 240 agents who signed up to attempt the previous course (XXX) were surveyed. The scoreboard remains as it was then: between 39 minutes (three points) and 35 or less (seven).
In this sense, the consulted sources emphasize that although the proposed distance is significantly less, it requires a more powerful pace to be able to cover it in the established times and the mark is comparatively much more demanding for the applicant.
40 seconds to swim 50 meters
In the same way, the times that are intended to be applied in the remaining tests are adjusted. In this way, in swimming (50-meter freestyle) will remain between 40 and 28 seconds, compared to the 50-31 second range that was originally wanted to be included as a novelty this year.
In the exercise of vertical jumpconsisting of a jump from a distance of 20 centimeters from a wall with one arm fully extended, would be required to reach at least 53 centimeters – the proposed change set the bar at 55 centimeters – and in dominated (palms back or forward with a free grip position) will still require at least 12 to get the minimum score instead of the intended 10.
Thus, the only significant difference in terms of physical fitness tests from the previous call is that applicants for the GEO course will not be subjected to the speed-agility circuit, which had to be completed in no more than 11.2 seconds to reach the minimum qualification (three points).
The requirements that had to be met…
…and those that will finally be approved
To be declared fit in the physical, applicants will need to obtain a minimum score of 20 points, having achieved at least three in each of the four tests described above. Only those who have passed this bar will be able to present themselves to the psychotechniques in which the capabilities of this police specialty are measured.
The police board agreed two weeks ago to reduce the physical requirements for the GEO access course
Only the 184 candidates who obtained a higher average score from the psychotechnical tests will be invited to a personal interview, the main purpose of which is the assessment of professional profiles. And there will still be one final screening, as for logistical reasons only 92 will be able to start the course.«In the event that the number of candidates declared fit exceeds this figure, candidates will be admitted in order of ranking based on the results obtained (average score of the physical tests plus average score of the psychotechnical tests), those candidates who are below the established cut-off score cannot start the course, details in the project.
Agents who pass the entrance exams, then undergo specialization and receive a place in the Special Operations Group – 17 vacancies will be announced – must remain for three years continuously in the operational part of the said unit. After this period of time, they must pass the confirmation tests, valid for two years. And so on, as happens in Police Intervention Units (UIP).
Headed since the beginning of this year by the Aragonese Commissioner Luis J. Esteban Lezáun, the GEO is the unit of the National Corps responsible for carrying out the most involved police operations, such as interventions in robberies, kidnappings or anti-terrorist missions. One of the relevant actions carried out in 2022 was the evacuation of the Spanish from Kyiv after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
