It’s a new rule for FBI agents, and that goes for computer geeks too.
The FBI says its agents must pass a physical fitness exam, reestablishing a rule that died 16 years ago.
{mosads}The move by FBI Director James Comey is designed to improve agents’ health at a time when long hours at a desk have become the norm, particularly for cybersecurity agents.
The New York Times, which reported the shift, suggested that it responds to Comey’s concerns about low morale among the FBI’s 13,500 agents.
“Mr. Comey believed that reinstituting the test would send the message about the importance of fitness, stress management and work-life balance,” the Times wrote. The report added that Comey does not have to take the test because he is not an agent.
The FBI’s modus operandi changed under the influence of the 9/11 attacks and the rise in Web and mobile technology, which lengthened working hours.
Now, given the threat from hackers worldwide, some of the agency’s workers spend most of their days at computers.
Out-of-shape agents are not what the public expects when it thinks of the FBI, Comey suggested in an internal memo last fall.
“I want you to look like the squared-away object of [Americans’] reverence,” he wrote. “I want the American people to be able to take one glance at you and think, ‘THERE is a special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.’ ”
Agents have until October to complete the test, which includes timed push-ups, sit-ups, sprinting and a mile run.