Tag: NYPD

 

The New York Police Department (NYPD), the largest police force in the country, announced on Wednesday it will now allow Sikh officers to wear beards and turbans while in uniform.

According to NYPD Commissioner James P. O’Neill, officers who are granted a religious accommodation will be allowed to have beards that extend up to one-half inch from the face and wear turbans in place of the police cap. However, no written policy has been shared that specifies the beard accommodation and the guidelines for how it applies.

“We look forward to reviewing the written policy before determining whether this is a complete fix, but we’re hopeful about what this announcement represents in the way of progress,” said Sikh Coalition Legal Director, Harsimran Kaur.

Since 2003, when the Sikh Coalition first sued the NYPD over a Sikh Traffic Enforcement Agent’s right to wear a turban, we have been fighting to end religious discrimination in the NYPD. If this new policy fully allows for Sikhs to maintain their unshorn hair, then this will become a widely celebrated announcement. However, if this new policy specifies limitations that further restrict Sikhs from serving with their articles of faith fully intact, then we are prepared to continue the necessary work to end religious discrimination in the nation’s largest police force.

“The devil is in the details and we hope the NYPD recognizes that any trimming of the Sikh beard is in direct violation of the Sikh faith and would continue a policy that forces officers to make the false choice between their religion and service to our great city,” said Kaur.

The Sikh Coalition is communicating directly with the NYPD and other New York City officials as we seek a copy of the written policy. We continue to work closely with other public officials, Sikh community leaders and Sikh police officers who have worked tirelessly with us on this issue.

A special thank you to the NYPD Sikh Officers Association and the leadership at the Richmond Hill Sikh Cultural Society, Gurdwara Sant Sagar, and the Baba Makhan Shah Lubana Sikh Center, along with past and present Sikh Coalition staff and board members.

The New York Police Department will now allow Sikh officers to wear turbans and beards, although it restricts the beard size to half-an-inch. Announcing the change in uniform and appearance policy, City Police Commissioner James O’Neill said: “We want to make the NYPD as diverse as possible.”

Welcoming the change, the Sikh Officers Association tweeted: “This is a proud moment for Sikh Community.” But because of the half-inch beard restriction, the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, a human rights organization, appeared to give new policy a qualified welcome.

“We look forward to reviewing the policy in depth to ensure that Sikhs can serve with their turban and beards intact and with no limitations or restrictions to either,” said board member Kavneet Singh.

But Singh added: “We commend Commissioner O’Neill on this positive step to make the NYPD a fully inclusive department.” Till now Sikh NY police were allowed to wear only a small head covering, the patka, under their regulation hats or caps. Now they can wear a full blue turban.

“We’ve been working with the Sikh officers to try to make sure we get this done,” O’Neill said after a ceremony for graduating class of the police academy. “I had the opportunity to make the change and I thought it was about time that we did that.”

A group of Sikh officers wearing blue turbans with the NYPD badges accompanied O’Neill when he made the announcement. Two Sikhs, who were among the 557 graduates, had earlier received permission to keep their beards but not wear full turbans.

O’Neill estimated that there are about 160 Sikhs in the 34,500-strong force in the city of 8.5 million people. The new policy seemed to apply to traffic police who are officially called traffic agents and wear white hats. Last week a Sikh police traffic agent was seen directing traffic near the United Nations wearing a white turban.

In April, the U.S. Army expanded its policy of permitting Sikh personnel to wear turbans, although it was in the nature of a waiver rather than a policy change. It was restricted to non-hazardous duties because of concerns with using gas masks.

The U.S. Army was facing a lawsuit by a soldier alleging the ban on turbans amounted to religious discrimination. The change in NYPD policy on beards may also allow Muslims police officers to keep their beards. But Muslim officers are demanding that they should be allowed two-inch beards and one of them has filed a discrimination suit.

In 2012, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority which runs the city’s metro and buses allowed Sikhs to wear turbans without the agency’s medallion everywhere on the job settling a case against it by the Sikh Coalition and the federal government.

The MTA also agreed to pay $184,500 to eight current or former employees who had objected to wearing the MTA symbol on their turbans claiming it violated their religious beliefs. However, New York police officers will be required to wear the police medallion on their turbans and so far Sikh officers have not objected to it.