Call it the al-Qaida 15.
FBI agents have apparently been packing on the pounds since the bureau shifted its focus to counterterrorism following the September 11 attacks, moving more employees out of the field and into long shifts behind desks.
Now, FBI director James Comey has acted to put a stop to bureau bloat. For the first time in 16 years, FBI agents will be required to take fitness tests, according to a memo obtained by the New York Times.
The tests are similar to fitness trials that applicants for one of the FBI’s roughly 14,000 special agent spots must pass upon entering the bureau. There are push-ups, timed sit-ups, a sprint and a longer run.
For example, women ages 20-29 must do 32 sit-ups in a minute and 15 push-ups without stopping, and also sprint 300 meters in 71 seconds and run 1.5 miles in under 15 minutes 5 seconds. Testees get only a five-minute break between each trial.
By way of comparison, the Army basic training physical fitness test is much less rigorous. It requires women ages 22-26 to complete, at a minimum, 11 push-ups in two minutes and 43 sit-ups in two minutes. A two-mile run in under 20:36 is also required.
“The lives of your colleagues and those you protect may well depend upon your ability to run, fight and shoot, no matter what job you hold,” the Times quoted Comey as saying in the memo. The FBI did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
