After a trial period, the Los Alamitos Police Chief announced this week that officers “under strict regulations,” will be allowed to wear beards and tattoos while employed by the local police force.
The revelations came during the March Los Alamitos City Council meeting.
“We do have a modification coming to the Los Alamitos Police Department Policy and procedure that relates to personal appearance,” Claborn said.
“Following a 90-day trial period for a beard and tattoo policy, I think it was two months into our trial period when I went to West County Chiefs meeting and found out there were four additional agencies in Orange County that are also about to initiate their beard and tattoo policy trials,” he added.
Nevertheless, Claborn said the department was ready to make the change.
“Now that ours (trial period) has concluded, we will be making a modification which will allow our officers to have beards and exposed tattoos under very strict regulations,” the police chief said.
Claborn said it “has helped with morale within the department” and will also become a “recruiting and retention tool” we also received some positive feedback from members of the community who have attended events where they have seen officers who now have a beard or exposed tattoo.”
City manager Chet Simmons said, “this may seem like a small thing but at the end of the day, providing rules and regulations that allow for us to actually go out and compete for each and every individual that we would like to see inside our police department and I commend the chief for looking at everything.”
Even unorthodox things that are going to help us retain officers,” he added.
Claborn said the new grooming policy is now effective and will be in place until further notice.