Amendments to waive height requirements for participation in civil service special exams for police officers were approved by the Examination Yuan on Thursday and would take effect starting from next year’s exams.
The decision stemmed from a case in 2018 when a woman surnamed Chen (陳) passed the civil service special examination for general police officers that year, but she was disqualified from training at the National Fire Agency the next year due to her height of 158.9cm, which is lower than the minimum required height of 160cm for female examinees stipulated in Paragraph 1, Article 8 of Civil Service Special Examination Regulations for General Police Officers (公務人員特種考試一般警察人員考試規則).
The regulations also specify a height requirement of at least 165cm for male examinees.
Photo: Taipei Times
Chen filed a petition to the Constitutional Court for review of her case following an unsuccessful administrative litigation.
On May 31, the height requirements were ruled unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court and would cease to have validity by a year from the ruling at the latest.
The Examination Yuan has invited the employing agencies, including the Ministry of the Interior and the Ocean Affairs Council, to jointly review their regulations and discuss improvements, with a meeting hosted by Examination Yuan President Chou Hung-hsien (周弘憲) held on Thursday.
Thursday’s meeting approved amendments to Article 8 of Civil Service Special Examination Regulations for Police Officers (公務人員特種考試警察人員考試規則) and articles 8 and 11 of Civil Service Special Examination Regulations for General Police Officers, lifting restrictions on examinees’ height for both exams from next year.
The Examination Yuan said in a statement that the regulations were amended in line with the Constitutional Court’s ruling.
To recruit more talent for firefighting, law enforcement and the coast guard, the Ministry of the Interior and the council advised the Ministry of Examination to remove height requirements for applicants to both exams, it said.
Given that police officers’ duties vary with social change, such as increased digital crimes, stature would not be as critical to their performance for all positions as before, it said.
The Executive Yuan approved the amendments to ensure people’s rights to equity, civil service exams and to hold public office, as well as to meet the employing agencies’ demand for talent, it said.
Additional reporting by CNA
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
RSS