Home Affairs signs off on recruitment of 500 new Mossos d'Esquadra

Catalonia is finally to get “the 500 new Mossos [police officers] we need,” said Catalan Minister of Home Affairs Jordi Jané on Thursday. As CNA reported on Wednesday, the Catalan executive aimed to get round the Spanish Tax Office injunction on funding 500 new officers by including them in the April 18 agreement to recruit 7,700 public servants. The recruitment of the 50 new officers permitted by the Tax Office will now go ahead, with a further 450 under the terms of the April agreement.

The Minister said that the recruitment was a step towards achieving the objective of an extra 1,500 Mossos police officers so as to reach the 18,300 figure set by the bilateral Security Board in 2006. Jané also pointed out that the last drive to recruit Mossos was back in February 2011 with 600 vacancies and that in recent years not only have there been no new officers, but 300 have been lost, while “the demands on security are higher."

The rules for the new recruitment call include some new elements, such as the age limit, which is extended to 65, and the requirement for aspirants to have attained the Baccalaureate school-leavers qualification. Meanwhile, visible inoffensive tattoos -of limited dimensions- will also now be allowed. However, height limits have not changed: 1.6 meters for women and 1.65 for men.