Law Weblog

Careers: apply to be a police officer at 16?

The law on age discrimination starts on 1 October 2006 (the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006). Employers must not discriminate on age grounds in various work situations including recruitment. With the recruitment age for police officers being lowered to 18 and because it takes 18-24 months to process applications, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has suggested that, to enable individuals to actually enter the police service at 18 years, they should consider accepting applications from 16 year olds.