Just 14.21% of the 2,736 city police officers currently making up the corps are women. In a bid to move forward in gender equality within the corps, the recruitment process for 282 places, opened before the state of emergency for Covid-19 was declared, has been adapted to the recent change in Catalonia’s Act 16/1991 on local police. The law sets out that recruitment processes for local police forces must include a quota reserving between 25% and 40% of places for women.

Women’s presence in the various recruitment processes has steadily gone up since 2010, with practically a fivefold increase from 6.4% in 2010 to 28% in 2019.

Changes in the recruitment process

The application period for the competitive entrance exams for the 282 places for city police officers lasts twenty calendar days, from 10 to 29 June. Some of the tests and requisites for the process have been changed this year:

• Minimum height eliminated as a requisite for access.
• Tattoos allowed, unless they contravene the principles and values of the ethics code for the Catalan Police.
• Changes to the cultural general knowledge test. The test will be a questionnaire about current politics, economics, social and cultural matters relating to Barcelona.
• Creation of a voluntary English test (non-disqualifying).

Check the rules for the process at https://www.barcelona.cat/oposicions2020/ca/.

Recruitment process for 80 places with the Barcelona Fire Service resumes

The current stage of the lockdown exit process has also seen the resumption of the competitive entrance tests for the 80 new places with the Barcelona Fire Service, with interviews now under way. The process was put on hold when the state of emergency started.