LAPD Seeks to Eliminate Height Rule

The Los Angeles Police Department wants to lower its standards. Literally.

Police commissioners Tuesday are expected to consider a request to abolish the department’s minimum 5-foot height requirement for officers, paving the way for a possibly more diminutive and more diverse police force.

In a memo to the Police Commission, Chief Willie L. Williams said he is seeking to eliminate the height requirement on the advice of city attorneys who say it may expose the department to “future liability and the possibility of a class-action suit.”

He noted that federal law prohibits the use of height and weight requirements unless there is a “specific performance-related reason.”

Williams said the department has received several appeals from police officer candidates who were disqualified because they did not meet the height requirement. He added that the department has surveyed 16 other police agencies across the country and that none had height requirements.

Department observers said that abolishing the height requirement would benefit mostly women and Asians. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the average height for women in the United States is about 5 feet, 4 inches.

“We think it’s a great recommendation,” said Carol Sobel, senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union in Los Angeles.

“It won’t only affect women, it will affect men. . . . Over the years, short women have performed remarkably well.”

Police Commissioner Edith Perez, who described herself as “barely 5 feet” tall, said she thinks getting rid of the height limit is long overdue.

“Do they have any problems in Japan with the height of their police?” Perez asked. “There is no rational relationship between the height requirement and what police officers do.”

The current requirement, she said, hurts women and Asians and effectively “excludes talented police officers” from the department.

Although the LAPD has a minimum height requirement, it has no upper height limit, nor any specific weight requirement other than that an officer’s weight must be proportionate to his or her height.

The current height requirement has been in place since 1980. Before that, the minimum requirement was 5 feet, 6 inches.

Not everybody embraced the proposal. Eric Rose, a spokesman for Councilwoman Laura Chick, said his boss “has serious reservations and concerns about eliminating the height. She wants more information from the police about why they feel this is necessary.”

Penny Harrington, a spokeswoman for the National Center for Women and Policing, said she supported the idea but did not think it would have much impact.

“I don’t see this making any big difference. I don’t think there are that many people under 5 feet trying to become officers,” Harrington said.

Nonetheless, she said, the requirement “is arbitrary and should be gone.”