Nearly 10,000 apply to become ‘night watchmen’ to patrol Istanbul streets
ISTANBUL
A total of 9,980 people have applied to the Interior Ministry to become Istanbul’s neighborhood night guards, 2,327 of whom are university graduates, Doğan News Agency reported on Dec. 7.
Applications accepted by Istanbul’s 39 district municipalities between Oct. 8 and Oct. 22 and which did not require submitting the nationwide Public Personnel Selection Exam (KPSS) results brought about eight applicants with postgraduate degrees.
Of the nearly 10,000 applicants, 7,654 were high school graduates, as 1,170 held undergraduate degrees, and 1,157 held associate’s degrees.
The guards, after selected, will receive training from the special operations teams, dubbed “Night Eagles” by Istanbul Police Chief Mustafa Çalışkan, and will have the right to stop vehicles, use guns, bats, handcuffs, and will carry flashlights and whistles.
The applicants, who are required to be “healthy male Turkish citizens” who have completed their military services and are under the age of 30, will be able to take the written exam upon scoring above 70 out of 100 on the oral test.
The oral exams which began on Dec. 5 will be completed by Dec. 13, while the written test, consisting of 50 questions in mixed disciplines, will take place on Dec. 24.
Some 386 “night watchmen” started patrolling the streets of Istanbul on late Aug. 13, which state-run Anadolu Agency described as a bid to “enhance safety in the city.”
The night watchmen, assigned to various neighborhoods of the city, have been on duty from sunset to sunrise six days a week, on an average of eight-hour shifts per day.
