The Reason Arlington Police Department Now Allows Tattoos Makes Perfect Sense
The more regulations you put on anything, say police officers, the smaller your pool applicants become, it's a given. And while regulations are often put in place by a governing body intending to shrink said pool, it turns out in this case the Arlington, TX Police Department felt they were missing out on too many quality applicants.
So in an effort to attract more potential officers to Arlington, they will no longer require their officers to cover their body art. Which, let's face it, can be unbearable in the Texas heat. Read the post from their social media below:
After much consideration, APD has decided that employees with approved tattoos will now have the option to display them while wearing their authorized work attire.
We hope this will not only enhance our employees’ quality of work life, but will also mean that APD won’t miss out on well-qualified applicants who may not have been keen on working here because they'd have to wear long sleeves / pants during the warmest parts of the year to cover their tattoos.
We have also decided that employees will be allowed to grow and display facial hair within certain guidelines. These days, many other agencies and professional organizations allow employees to have facial hair. If this policy change helps us improve our employees’ work experience, while also helping us recruit additional quality employees, then we see this as progress.
And just in case you were wondering, does the Tyler Police Department have a policy on tattoos? "Yes, officers may openly display tattoos (deemed acceptable) except on the neck, face and any portion of the hands."
The Longview and Kilgore police departments "allow visible tattoos only for officers who started before the current policy took effect. Longview and Kilgore also allow some facial hair, but for the most part, officers must be clean-shaven."