BOSTON COULD ALLOW OLDER APPLICANTS TO JOIN THE POLICE
City Council mulls raising max age for academy to 45
The Boston City Council wants to raise the maximum age requirement for entry into the police academy to 45 to “allow more residents with different life experiences and backgrounds to become officers and better serve the city.”
Candidates must be younger than 40 to become a cop in the city — a requirement that city councilors believe is contributing to a staffing shortage in the force.
But it doesn’t have to be that way, according to councilors who are pushing for the maximum age requirement for entry to the city’s Police Academy to be raised to 45 years old.
The last change to the age requirement came in 2007 when the state Legislature approved a home rule petition that increased the cap from 32 years of age to 40. City Councilor Enrique Pepen says its time for the maximum to be expanded further.
Pepen has brought three age waivers forward since he joined the council in January, but they are solely for individuals rather than a group of eager candidates.
The waivers, if approved, are then sent as home rule petitions to Beacon Hill. It’s a process that Pepen and other councilors say is “causing a delay in qualified candidates to start training to join the force.”
The council has approved Pepen’s order for a hearing to discuss raising the age limit to apply to the Police Academy. Invited are city officials and “experts on school transportation programs,” with community members encouraged to testify.
Pepen called his proposal “an essential step toward building a more equitable, resilient and community-oriented police force in Boston.”
“A police force that reflects the demographics of the city it serves not only enhances trust and cooperation within communities but also improves the effectiveness of policing,” he said.
Under civil service law, candidates must pass written and physical exams before being admitted to the police academy and be 39 years old or younger as of the original exam date. They also have to be residents of the city.
Boston is just one of three departments in the state to follow the 39-year-old or younger cutoff, with Plymouth and Taunton being the other two. Nearly 80 departments, including Cambridge, Attleboro, Brockton, Brookline, Everett, Medford and Somerville, have no upper age limit.
“There’s this whole pool of individuals who are willing and able to become police officers so we might as well simply give them a chance to even apply,” Boston City Councilor Gabriela Coletta said. “We are not lowering the standards, and all we’re hoping for is to give them a pathway to take the test.”
Roughly 40 departments, including Arlington, Watertown and Belmont, have stricter measures than Boston: Candidates must be 31 years old or younger, either as of the last date to apply for the exam or on its original date.
Pepen’s latest age waiver request also came this week for Max Handerson, a 44-year-old who has lived in Hyde Park for eight years and is a manager at Road To Responsibility, a day home in Braintree for individuals with disabilities.
Handerson moved to the United States in 2010 from Haiti and went through a “a tough immigration process” before gaining citizenship in 2019, Pepen said.
“But due to some difficulties in his personal life, he was not confident that he was able to make it through the training process at the time,” Pepen said of Handerson. “Now, he is in a better state, physically, mentally and in excellent health to be a police officer to protect and serve his community.”
“He was devastated when he heard he had to be younger than 40 years old in order to become a Boston police officer,” Pepen added.
Pepen’s proposal comes amid an uptick in reported assaults on police officers.
Two days after the council moved his request to the Committee on Public Safety & Criminal Justice, a 51-year-old Bridgewater man severely bit an officer and injured two others during an altercation at City Hall and when he was being taken in for booking. All three were taken to hospitals to be evaluated.
Michael Charles Williams faces two counts of assault and battery on a police officer and single counts of assault to maim, resisting arrest, and a subsequent offense of disorderly conduct following the scuffle that took place at around 9:40 a.m. Friday in City Hall.
“It should never be acceptable to assault a police officer or first responders,” Councilor Ed Flynn said in an X post. “These assaults must be prosecuted!”
Last month, 10 people were arrested during St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, six of whom were arraigned on charges of assault and battery on a police officer.
Last August, Police Commissioner Michael Cox temporarily transferred 40 officers from specialized units — drug, gang and traffic units — to work in various neighborhood districts to help relieve cops who had been most impacted by the shortages.
“We are constantly short on police officers in Boston,” Councilor Henry Santana said. “It is a difficult and demanding job, and it’s one that often goes with too few thanks for a job well done serving our community.”
“And yet despite our need for more police officers,” Santana added, “we often hear cases of people who have fought hard to overcome obstacles to pursue the dream of serving Boston’s public safety as police officers, only to be stopped by an arbitrary age limit for the police academy.”