The NYPD said Wednesday that rules regarding head-coverings and beards will be relaxౠed in an effort to make the depar👍tment’s uniform policy more accommodating to officers of the Sikh faith.
NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill stood alongside Sikh officers after a graduation ceremony at Madison Square Garden where he said he wanted to continue to make the NYPD “as diverse as possible.”
“We change𝓀d our beard policy and our head cov🍌ering policy,” O’Neill said.
“It is a major change in our uniform policy, so we had to go about it 🌞c🍌arefully.”
The Commiওssioner said there are about 160 Sikh officers currently in the ranks and he was looking to expand th෴ose numbers.
“We’ve been working with the Sikh officers to try to make sure we get this done,” O’Neill said about uniform policy.
“I had the opportunity to make the change and I thought it was about time that we did that. We want to make the NYPD as diverse as possible and I think this is going to be one way to help us with that.”
A spokesman for the Sikh Coalition — which aims protects the right to practice religious faith — said the department’s refusal to hire turbaned and bearded people of Sikh faith made discrimination against the group more likely in other workplaces.
“If the NYPD’s new policy indeed allows for Sikhs to maintain unshorn beards and turbans, that sends a powerful message to the rest of America that Sikhs are an important part of our nation’s fabric,” Sikh Coalition Legal Director, Harsimran Kaur said.