(Newswire.net — January 29, 2017) —The rules which demanded police officers to wear a 1950s-clean-shaven look have now changed, as police departments wish to attract more candidates. The new regulations are relaxing the traditional grooming standards and this shifting trend will open doors for many potential candidates from diverse backgrounds.
For example, many officers now come to work without hiding the tattoos on their arms, which they were obliged to do in the past as visible tattoos were not allowed. Also, cops no longer have to hide their long hair under the blue hat.
Long beards are now also allowed, as well as turbans.
Mandeep Singh, one of the 160 Sikhs in the New York City Police Department, explained that the turban is a part of him. He is very pleased because last month his department allowed him and his colleagues to wear navy blue turbans in place of the standard-issue police caps, reports ABC news.
“This opens a gate for other potential candidates who felt they could not be a police officer because they would have to choose either the job or their faith.”
This is not the first time that some police departments responded to the needs of their staff by respecting their faith.
In 2014, the police created a special hijab in St. Paul, Minnesota, for its first female Somali Muslim officer.
Also, The New York City Police Department modified the rule on the length of beards, after Muslim NYPD officer, Masood Syed, who grows a beard for religious reasons, was suspended for its length. Syed sued his department last year over a rule requiring beards to be trimmed to within a millimeter of the skin. He was reinstated and the department altered the length of the beard to a half-inch.
The police departments in New Orleans; Portland, Oregon; Austin, Texas; and Pinellas Park, Florida, are tolerant with recruiters who come in with visible tattoos.
According to a public survey conducted by the state police in Kansas, half of the nearly 20,000 respondents had tattoos themselves, and 69 percent said the department shouldn’t have a policy prohibiting visible tattoos.
An attorney who represents police unions during labor-related disputes said that police departments should be focused on how the officer performs his or her job, and not on how they look.