2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title IV - Civil Service, Retirements and Pensions › Chapter 31 - Civil Service › Section 58 - Municipal Police Officers and Firefighters; Qualification

Section 58. No person shall be ineligible for appointment and no person shall be denied employment as a firefighter or as a police officer in a city or town because of failure to attain a minimum height unless the administrator, in response to the written request of the appointing authority that no person under a specified height be certified for appointment to such position in said city or town, has established a minimum height requirement for the position. Such request shall include the findings of a validation study demonstrating the necessity for a minimum height for said position in said city or town, and such other evidence as the administrator may require.
No person shall be certified for original appointment to the position of firefighter or police officer in a city or town which has not accepted sections 61A and 61B if that person has reached 32 years of age 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 the 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 a city or town if the applicant will not have reached 19 years of age on or before the final date for the filing of applications for the examination, as so stated; provided, however, that an applicant who reached 19 years of age while serving on active military duty, who was not 19 on or before the date of an original examination, shall be eligible for any subsequent make up examination that is offered. No person shall be eligible for original appointment to the position of police officer in a city or town until that person has reached the age of 21.
No applicant for examination for original appointment to the police force or fire force of a city or town shall be required by rule or otherwise to be a resident of such city or town at the time of filing application for such examination; provided, however, that notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law to the contrary, any person who receives an appointment to the police force or fire force of a city or town shall within nine months after his appointment establish his residence within such city or town or at any other place in the commonwealth that is within ten miles of the perimeter of such city or town; provided, however, that a city or town may increase the 10 mile residency limit under a collective bargaining agreement negotiated under chapter 150E. If any person who has resided in a city or town for one year immediately prior to the date of examination for original appointment to the police force or fire force of said city or town has the same standing on the eligible list established as the result of such examination as another person who has not so resided in said city or town, the administrator, when certifying names to the appointing authority for the police force or the fire force of said city or town, shall place the name of the person who has so resided ahead of the name of the person who has not so resided; provided, that upon written request of the appointing authority to the administrator, the administrator shall, when certifying names from said eligible list for original appointment to the police force or fire force of a city or town, place the names of all persons who have resided in said city or town for one year immediately prior to the date of examination ahead of the name of any person who has not so resided.
As a prerequisite to appointment to the position of regular police officer in a city, or in a town where the civil service law and rules are applicable to such position, a person shall have graduated from high school, or received a high school graduation equivalency certificate from the department of education, or served for three years or more in the armed forces of the United States, having last left such armed forces under honorable conditions.
Upon the written request of an appointing authority that educational requirements be established as prerequisites for appointment to its fire force, the administrator may establish such requirements.