From now, on the NYPD will protect — and shave.
Bewhiskered New York City cops are dusting off their safety razors, as the department’s ban on beards for officers is set to go into effect June 17.
The updated facial hair policy, first reported by the Post in February, will apply to all police officers, school safety agents, and traffic enforcement agents as part of a department-wide effort to “ensure that all uniformed members of the service reflect the department’s high standards for professionalism,” a police spokesperson said, according to the Daily News.
Beard lengths for New York’s Finest will soon once again be limited to a diminutive 1mm, about the length of a sharpened pencil point.
Goatees will remain taboo, as will chinstrap-style or “designer” beards with brand names, patterns or logos shaved in, the order reads in part.
The NYPD scaled back its facial hair requirements in 2020, following a class-action lawsuit filed by Masood Syed, a Muslim officer who was suspended for refusing to trim his 1-inch beard down to the department-mandated maximum.
The case was settled in 2018.
The Police Benevolent Association told the outlet Thursday that determining which bearded officers qualify for a medical or religious exemption from the policy was too difficult to fairly administrate, which “was one of the reasons the department changed the policy to allow beards without an exemption.”
Mustaches and sideburns — mainstays on the faces of New York City cops since the department’s founding in 1845 — will still be allowed, but with limitations.
‘Staches cannot extend beyond or droop below the corners of an officer’s mouth, while sideburns must reach no lower than the bottom of their earlobes.
The move follows a series of efforts the NYPD has undertaken to clean up its act as department bosses have pushed to roll back the clock on the appearance standards of its officers.
“Basically what I’m telling everybody in this room is we’re going back to old school,” Chief of Patrol John Chell told department brass at a February meeting in a video obtained by The Post.
“We’re going to bring back some traditions that we kind of lost in the past couple years.”
Chell telegraphed some of the other coming changes at the time, including cracking down on open collars and knit caps.