“Fashionable police forces, such because the Cypriot one, that are made up of educated and correctly educated members, achieve the respect of residents, not by enforcement or their dynamic picture, however primarily by new approaches”
Sthe police forces of a number of European states, Scandinavian nations and naturally the USA, uniformed cops are allowed to keep up beards, lengthy hair and tattoos, offered that their look is groomed and dignified. The images we publish are indicative sufficient. A few of them come from the diaries revealed by Europol (Europol), during which policemen of assorted states seem with beards.
The Workplace of the Commissioner of Administration issued a report a decade in the past asking the then Chief of Police to repeal the anachronistic regulation that prohibits uniformed officers from sporting lengthy hair, beards and beards. To this present day, the Police has not made any modifications to the regulation in query, regardless of the suggestions made by the Commissioner of Administration in a report issued on June 4, 2014, after analyzing a grievance submitted by Police Sergeant Constantinos Constantinou. The latter, when he submitted his grievance, was on pre-service depart. Throughout the disputed interval, Mrs. Eliza Savvidou served because the Commissioner of Administration.
Ten years later, the subject is again within the information. The rationale for this was the grievance made, just a few days in the past, by the president of the Police Pressure department of the Pan-Cypriot Union Equality, Mr. Nikos Loizidis, to the European Commissioner for Human Rights. Mr. Loizidis requires the annulment of the police order that prohibits uniformed cops from sustaining lengthy hair, beards and beards.
The place of the Police management
The positions of the Police management, as recorded within the report of the Commissioner of Administration, which it needs to be famous haven’t been reviewed thus far, are as follows: There’s a substantial amount of case legislation on the topic and police businesses wishing to manage hair types, and particularly their size, have acquired appreciable help from the courts. Specifically, the management of the Police invokes a call issued by the US Supreme Court docket in 1976 (Kelley vs Johnson). The subject material of the case was the regulation of a specific police station which regulated the type and size of hair, sideburns and moustaches, and prohibited beards. The courtroom dominated that there’s a violation of the best of expression of the members of the Police solely when a regulation regarding their look doesn’t have a adequate logical justification. On this case, the Police's explanations that the stated regulation was imposed to make sure uniformity of look and to reinforce esprit de corps (sense of belonging to a physique/fellow solidarity) had been discovered to be adequate to help the related regulation.
Based mostly on the above, the management of the Police considers that the directions associated to the looks of its members are essential, because the well-groomed and impeccable look of the policemen confers status and reinforces the sensation of self-discipline. He additionally notes that earlier than somebody is employed within the Police he is aware of that there are phrases and laws that he should respect and the existence of such a regulation is included within the context of self-discipline, which ought to characterize each member of the Police.
Why did the commissioner disagree?
Within the conclusions of her report, the then Commissioner of Administration, Mrs. Eliza Savvidou, factors out, amongst different issues, the next:
1 On condition that the looks is an expression of an individual's character and falls throughout the sphere of his particular person selections, any restrictions positioned should, on the one hand, respect the core of the best and the precept of proportionality, i.e. be strictly essential, and then again, to maintain tempo with present social realities.
2 From a easy studying of the police order governing the problem, it follows that it displays the perceptions and stereotypes concerning the looks of males that prevailed in previous instances. Whereas particularly, brief hair and sustaining a well-groomed mustache weren’t solely acceptable for males, however had been probably proof of masculinity, having a beard, mustache, sideburns, or lengthy hair was a detrimental signal of standing. , his beliefs or habits which, probably, betrayed ethical or ideological freedom and even deliberate questioning of the established order.
3 These prejudices have now been overcome by society itself and that sustaining them in relation to the members of the safety forces doesn’t serve something. In spite of everything, the police order itself refers to an look that’s acceptable to most people and the Police might use this reference to direct the evaluation and modernization of the person provisions of the order. In any case, trendy police forces, such because the Cypriot one, that are made up of educated and correctly educated members, search and win the respect of residents, not by enforcement or their dynamic picture, however primarily by new approaches that target effectivity, synergy and mutual belief.
4 The existence of guidelines that bind the members of the Police and extra broadly any personnel in a manner that exceeds the bounds of their official motion and habits and extends into their slim personal house constitutes extreme, and subsequently unlawful, interference with their proper to non-public life. On this regard, whereas it’s official to require a police officer to put on his uniform whereas on responsibility and to have a clear and tidy look, it’s unreasonable to require him all through his twenty-four hours and all through his whole vary of social and interpersonal relationships brief hair or a clean-shaven face. Such a query of invasion of privateness wouldn’t come up within the case of a regulation requiring males with lengthy hair to maintain it tied up whereas on responsibility or, if they’ve a beard or beard, to maintain it well-kept and never a hazard to their very own security. .
