From Local10.com:
North Miami police say they are dropping the requirement for a year. They say few departments require swimming and their officers rarely save people in water.
"Our swimming requirement may give the false perception that we are not serious in our efforts to hire Haitian police applicants," police chief Gwendolyn Boyd-Savage wrote in a memo explaining the decision. Boyd-Savage is black.
"They have been intimidated because they don't swim, very few of them swim," said Mayor Joe Celestin, who is Haitian-American. "They have the ability to learn how to swim, but many of them are not that great of a swimmer as the standard, current requirement that we have. We want to bring them in and give them a chance to learn."
You're probably thinking that this is a small matter. No big deal, right? Its not like these officers are life guards or anything. But what about the officers who already passed the swimming requirement?
My father doesn't like swimming. It makes him nervous. Yet when he applied to work for the Alaska State Troopers he had to confront his fears and pass the exam. There just wasn't any other way around it. What if there is somebody like my father working for the North Miami PD. Is the dropping of the swimming requirement fair to that officer?
Plus, why is the North Miami PD so intent on hiring a group of people who can't be bothered to learn a basic skill in order to obtain employment? Its not like they're asking these people to be expert swimmers According to the article the requirement is for an officer to swim 150 feet fully clothed (without shoes). I'd have serious reservations about hiring somebody who couldn't even complete that basic test.
I hate it when organizations "lower the bar" in order to allow a minority in. If I were a minority I would be offended by the implication that the bar has to be lowered in order for me to succeed.