Police recruitment process has many flaws

Islamabad
The police recruitment in Pakistan still follows the old pattern of focus on physical fitness tests instead of competencies assessment required for selection of a constable, the basic unit of the police force.
“Those who can run fast, are eligible for the recruitment of constable of police but the others having many other qualities required for the policeman, are kicked out of the completion if he does not come in first four positions of the race during the physical test of the course of recruitment,” a member of the selection team admitted the flaws in the recruitment process.
Presently, the determination of physical fitness is made by a 1000-metre run in addition to chin ups and push ups alongside a minimum height requirement. This assessment also lack any scientific determination of fitness required to undertake a job of police officer in Pakistan.
First four participants among 100, having capacity to run summarily, are presumed fit for police service, remaining 96, regardless of their qualifications, skills, aptitude, intelligibility and other God-given extraordinary abilities, are swept out of the contest.
Similarly, the sequencing of recruitment also determines the eligibility priorities of the police organisation as the physical tests are conducted first and those who qualify these tests are then required to undertake a theoretical test.
The theoretical test is made by police department and is also not based on any competencies assessment. Instead, it focuses on some general knowledge and current affairs based short questions which cannot make a sound assessment of a candidate in terms of its selection as a police officer that requires special competencies. In UK, such assessment includes an interview, four interactive exercises, two written exercises and a numerical and verbal ability test.
Due to a huge number of applicants interested in job of the police constable in Pakistan, the police organisations have been using

the physical tests as a barrier to exclude fairly educated and intelligent candidates who become automatically ineligible for written tests if they fail in physical tests.
This approach has been the main reason for not improving the standard of recruitment in police despite a large number of well-educated candidates who apply for the job of a constable.
Recently, some police departments of Pakistan have outsourced the recruitment of Constable to National Testing Service (NTS) primarily due to issues of transparency and merit but unless the scheme of assessment is not reversed and scientific competency based testing is undertaken first to be followed by physical fitness tests later, it will not help in recruitment of qualified and intelligent candidates for the police organisation.
Similarly, in determination of physical fitness, traditional modes of tests like one mile run and chin up and push ups are also required to be re-examined and changed in line with the international best practice.
International police organisations have introduced two key fitness requirements based on scientific research and the requirements of job for a police constable, firstly, dynamic strength — involves performing five seated chest pushes and five seated back pulls on the Dyno machine to measure your strength and secondly, endurance — candidate will be asked to run to and fro along a 15-metre track in time with a series of bleeps, which become increasingly faster.
If the candidate doesn’t meet the standard first time around, he can take the test again up to a maximum of three times. In Pakistan, there is no such concept of allowing the candidates to take the physical fitness tests again.
In UK, three-step process is undertaken whereby as a Step 1, on receiving the application form, eligibility check is made and responses to competency questions is marked (if these are used by the force).
Second step of the recruitment is, if the application is successful, the candidate is then invited to attend an assessment centre step 2. If candidate pass the assessment centre, than the candidate takes a fitness test as step 3.
Next, the references are checked, followed by a background, security, medical and eyesight checks.
Inspector General (IG) National Highway and Motorway Police (NH&MP) Zulfiqar Cheema, when contacted for his comments, said many reforms are required to streamline the system of recruitment process of cops. “Though physical fitness is vital for a policeman but other skills and qualifications should not be ignored and it should be observed through different means,” Zulfiqar Cheema suggested.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Nasir Khan Durrani, while talking to ‘The News’ expressed his discontent regarding selection of constable, describing his suggestions about the improvement in recruitment of constable of police.
Psychology assessment of newly recruited cops, must be conducted as a part of medical examination in these circumstances to gauge their trend towards extremism.
It is quite difficult to meet international standard of selection of the cops but it could be perked up to some extent.
Sikandar Hayat, former IGP Islamabad and now working as head of the KPK governor’s inspection team, when asked about his version, said cop is the most important associate of the police department and the cop should be selected carefully with all qualities and elegance to meet international criterion.