For centuries, the French police force has had a minimum height requirement. Since the time of Napoleon, if you weren’t over a certain amount of meters tall, you weren’t allowed to become a street-walking duty cop in the French national police force. Now, those height requirements are lifted (or rather, removed), and people under 5 foot 3 inches tall (1.6 meters) can become French police officers.
“Entry into all active categories of the national police is no longer reserved for candidates whose height exceeds 1.60m,” the French Labor Ministry said in a statement. “From now on the conditions of entry will be linked exclusively to the ability to carry out the relevant duties.” As long as those duties don’t involve reaching on the top shelf for stuff or changing lightbulbs, there shouldn’t be a problem.
No doubt some of the credit for this change belongs to French president Nicolas Sarkozy, whose personal bodyguard hires no one tall due to the President’s vanity. Odds are, he was tired of being towered over by female police officers, thus decided to lower the standard and get a few shorter cops on the beat so he’s not always straining his neck to look up at his security detail.
Tags: French police end height restrictions, minimum height requirement ended, French police now admit people under 5’3, 1.6 meter height ban lifted, unusual height limitations, law and order