Tattoos and the police: objectionable designs should be covered up

The Home Affairs Minister is in favour of allowing police recruits who have tattoos to join the corps. There are several issues that may arise. How will the different generations of the community react? How will the different generations of officers working in the corps react? How will the corps deal with officers and tattoos through policy? How will the officers with tattoos react to policy restrictions? How are tattoos affecting recruitment of new officers?

Younger generations do not care if officers have tattoos. To them an officer with tattoos shares a kinship with them, making the officer somewhat more desirable to deal with. Older generations, however, generally have a negative view of tattoos. Thugs, criminals, gangsters, the worst characters in society have tattoos.

Officers are a microcosm of the society at large. Officers in the corps can range from 21 to 60 years and over. Each generation of officers have the same types of views as those in the greater community. Up until a few years ago tattoos were not even an issue because the officers had a personal standard of not having tattoos in areas of their bodies where they could be seen in uniform. It was seen as disrespectful to the uniform to do otherwise.

I feel that the corps should not let an officer display any tattoo he/she wants. What if the officer wants to display a graphic depiction of a woman’s vagina, or swastikas, or mutilated bodies, or racist symbols, or any other offensive imagery or writing? Which entity should become a tattoo censor? What is acceptable to an officer may not be to the Commissioner.

Any type of arbitrary decision-making can be rife with litigation potential. The best way to avoid this problem is to craft a well thought-out policy preventing the officers from having any objectionable tattoos in areas of the body that cannot be covered by the uniform or a flesh colored sleeve on the arm.

The goal of our police corps should be to find officers that can be the least objectionable possible to be able to provide service to the widest range potential of the community. Our corps has struggled for decades to raise the professional standards of the officers. The lowering of standards to improve recruitment could easily end up taking it in the wrong direction.

Dr Mark Said,
Msida