BGarner
11-28-2005, 08:48 PM
Hello. I am 19 years old and live in Cheshire, MA. My father is the chief of police in Cheshire. I will be going through the reserve/intermittent academy in January. I have been told by other officers that a law just passed in MA that you have to be 21 to be a LEO. I have searched around in the MA general laws about this and only came up with a law that recently passed in March of 2005 stating that you have to be 21 to take the Civil Service Exam. This is from the MA general laws website:
"Notwithstanding section 58 of chapter 31 of the General Laws or any other general or special law to the contrary, any otherwise eligible person shall be eligible to take the April 2005 examination for original appointment to the position of police officer in any city or town if he will not have reached his twenty-first birthday on or before the final date for the filing of applications for such examination but shall have reached his twenty-first birthday on or before the date of the examination."
Approved March 24, 2005.
Cheshire, MA Police department is a non- civil service agency, therefore I would not have to take the Civil Service Exam. I have also read somwhere else on this forum that non civil service agencies can have their own hiring practices. I did some more searching on the MA general laws site and came up with this as well:
"No person shall be eligible to have his name certified for original appointment to the position of firefighter or police officer in a city or town which has not accepted the provisions of sections sixty-one A and sixty-one B if such person has reached his thirty-second birthday on or before the final date for the filing of applications, as stated in the examination notice, for the examination used to establish the eligible list from which such certification is to be made. No person shall be eligible to take an examination for original appointment to the position of firefighter or police officer in any city or town if he will not have reached his nineteenth birthday on or before the final date for the filing of applications for such examination, as so stated."
[ Second paragraph as amended by 2004, 467, Secs. 2 and 3 effective January 5, 2005. For text effective until January 5, 2005, see above.]
According to this I should be able to be appointed to Cheshire P.D. on the basis of that I am 19 and don't need to take the Civil Service Exam for Cheshire P.D. That is what I am gathering from this anyway. I have showed other Cheshire officers these laws as well, and they seem to think the same thing unless I am missing something. Anybody else know anything about this matter? My dad is checking up on it, I figured I'd ask around on here in the meantime. Sorry about such a long post. Thanks in advance for any input.
"Notwithstanding section 58 of chapter 31 of the General Laws or any other general or special law to the contrary, any otherwise eligible person shall be eligible to take the April 2005 examination for original appointment to the position of police officer in any city or town if he will not have reached his twenty-first birthday on or before the final date for the filing of applications for such examination but shall have reached his twenty-first birthday on or before the date of the examination."
Approved March 24, 2005.
Cheshire, MA Police department is a non- civil service agency, therefore I would not have to take the Civil Service Exam. I have also read somwhere else on this forum that non civil service agencies can have their own hiring practices. I did some more searching on the MA general laws site and came up with this as well:
"No person shall be eligible to have his name certified for original appointment to the position of firefighter or police officer in a city or town which has not accepted the provisions of sections sixty-one A and sixty-one B if such person has reached his thirty-second birthday on or before the final date for the filing of applications, as stated in the examination notice, for the examination used to establish the eligible list from which such certification is to be made. No person shall be eligible to take an examination for original appointment to the position of firefighter or police officer in any city or town if he will not have reached his nineteenth birthday on or before the final date for the filing of applications for such examination, as so stated."
[ Second paragraph as amended by 2004, 467, Secs. 2 and 3 effective January 5, 2005. For text effective until January 5, 2005, see above.]
According to this I should be able to be appointed to Cheshire P.D. on the basis of that I am 19 and don't need to take the Civil Service Exam for Cheshire P.D. That is what I am gathering from this anyway. I have showed other Cheshire officers these laws as well, and they seem to think the same thing unless I am missing something. Anybody else know anything about this matter? My dad is checking up on it, I figured I'd ask around on here in the meantime. Sorry about such a long post. Thanks in advance for any input.