Barcelona City Council is aiming to increase the number of City Police officers to 3,500 in 2023, the highest number in the history of the corps, fulfilling one of the most notable government agreements for this term of office.
Aspiring recruits for the city’s local police force can apply from today until 30 March (inclusive). Candidates can register telematically using Barcelona City Council’s e-headquarters, accessing from the public jobs section on the municipal website.
A campaign is being run to promote the process under the slogan “Som plurals, som urbana”, the goal being to reach as many individuals and groups as possible.
General information on the 259 places available can be found on the website barcelona.cat/oposicions-guardiaurbana.
New aspects to the competitive entry exam process
This call continues to introduce new aspects for the corps to increasingly reflect Barcelona’s society. Recent years have seen recruitment processes for the City Police adopt measures to promote the incorporation of more women, as well as considering the knowledge of English a scoring merit. This new call is the first time that the knowledge of Chinese, Arabic or Urdu are also considered merits.
This is the first time it will be possible to postpone the physical exam in the case of women who are pregnant at the time, as well as those accrediting post-natal situations of up to 16 weeks after the birth of a child. In this case, the selection board will give a new date for the test, which will have to be taken before the publication of the list of proposed candidates for the training stage. This flexibility will apply to recruitment processes for the City Police and the Fire Service alike.
The new aspects introduced this year come in addition to the quota applied in the last City Police recruitment process for women to account for 40% of new officers, the goal being to redress the current imbalance.