Police in Scotland now have to be clean shaven

[ChocolateFrog]

I can see them having to row back on this one.

BBC News - Police Scotland officers ordered to shave off beards
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-65482560

Bit odd as the military have been relaxing their rules around beards.

Properly fitted FFP3 masks requires more than just a shave and if they did encounter a situation that actually required them then they'd be in full hazmat suits.

[KAgantua]

What ?? Crazy.

Oh hang on its Scotland.

[Evercross]

[irc]

Back to the 80s. Once upon a time in the Scottish police you had to be 5ft10. No visible tattoos allowed. No beards. Needed to ask permission to buy a house. Nightshift spent pulling padlocks. Any conviction a bar to recruitment.

Those days are gone. I think they will struggle to get this through. Perhaps a requirement for a few specialist roles.

[anonymous-user]

ChocolateFrog said:

I can see them having to row back on this one.

<snip>

Yep. Absolutely.

There is no way this one will go through.

[MBVitoria]

Lord Marylebone said:

ChocolateFrog said:

I can see them having to row back on this one.

<snip>

Yep. Absolutely.

There is no way this one will go through.

Police are struggling to recruit good candidates and at present, beards are in fashion. This is just another reason not to join.

[Bigends]

irc said:

Back to the 80s. Once upon a time in the Scottish police you had to be 5ft10. No visible tattoos allowed. No beards. Needed to ask permission to buy a house. Nightshift spent pulling padlocks. Any conviction a bar to recruitment.

Those days are gone. I think they will struggle to get this through. Perhaps a requirement for a few specialist roles.

Same in my force south of the border. Beards were allowed but had to be grown to an acceptable length during night shifts. That gave 12 days to be a beard rather than stubble - three rest days after earlies - 7 night shifts then two rest days before lates by which time it had to be presentable - otherwise - off it came.

[Cold]

Does this apply to the men too?

[mwstewart]

Seems OK on the face of it

No but seriously IMO beards present a scruffy image in a public facing or service job. I think it's a good thing if the police don't have them.

[irc]

Bigends said:

- three rest days after earlies - 7 night shifts then two rest days before lates .

You had the same lovely shifts then?

[Bigends]

irc said:

Bigends said:

- three rest days after earlies - 7 night shifts then two rest days before lates .

You had the same lovely shifts then?

Yep, did em for 26 yrs kout of my 30.. never had a problem with them though seven 6am starts was a pain

[J4CKO]

What about officers with beards for religious observance ?

"Ahh, well yes obviously you can have one because religion, but not him"

Will cause more agro than any small issues it solves.

[csd19]

Evercross said:

No difference, still looks like a fanny.

[pork911]

irc said:

Nightshift spent pulling padlocks.

euphemism?

[pork911]

MBVitoria said:

Lord Marylebone said:

ChocolateFrog said:

I can see them having to row back on this one.

<snip>

Yep. Absolutely.

There is no way this one will go through.

Police are struggling to recruit good candidates and at present, beards are in fashion. This is just another reason not to join.

are fashion following beardists good candidates?

[Wills2]

I think a short tidy beard is fine right down to shaped stubble but those wearing longer beards especially when teamed with tattoos look awful, aggressive and unapproachable which isn't really a good look for the police.

Discipline and standards need to be bought back in to public facing roles, a bit of respect for the public wouldn't go amiss as well and having a neat and tidy police force is a step in the right direction.

We need more conformity in the police rather than this constant stream of me me me.

[anonymous-user]

Wills2 said:

I think a short tidy beard is fine right down to shaped stubble but those wearing longer beards especially when teamed with tattoos look awful, aggressive and unapproachable which isn't really a good look for the police.

Discipline and standards need to be bought back in to public facing roles, a bit of respect for the public wouldn't go amiss as well and having a neat and tidy police force is a step in the right direction.

We need more conformity in the police rather than this constant stream of me me me.

Whilst I don't disagree, I think the problem is the struggle to attract and recruit people to become Police officers. As someone said earlier in the thread, if you ban beards and/or tattoos, it is just another reason for people not to want to join. There are plenty of reasons not to join as it stands now.

The answer is: To increase the pay and conditions to make the job attractive, like it used to be. This will enable you to be a lot more picky and choosy about who becomes a police officer. You may then be in a position to ban or expel lumberjack beards, tattoos, fat people, the incompetent, and so on.

That will never happen of course, because like many other public services in this country, it is now just a race to the bottom. How little can we pay people and still have someone, anyone, turn up to do the job of Police officer, Nurse, Doctor, teacher, etc.

[irc]

I think you will find cops, nurses, and teachers after say 5 years in the job are all paid more than the average salary. Doctors after 5 years about double the average salary.

And good pensions.

Perhaps we should want people who want to do the job and look at things like poor management and excessive paperwork which make the job less attractive?

[E63eeeeee...]

irc said:

I think you will find cops, nurses, and teachers after say 5 years in the job are all paid more than the average salary. Doctors after 5 years about double the average salary.

And good pensions.

Perhaps we should want people who want to do the job and look at things like poor management and excessive paperwork which make the job less attractive?

Surely it's more relevant to ask how they compare against other graduates after 5 years. If you can earn a similar amount in a zero stress minimum wage job stacking shelves in Tesco's who on earth is going to go through years of training and put up with all the other st that comes with those jobs? Slightly better than average pay after 5 years is a pretty pathetic aspiration for critical public servants.

[irc]

Ah, the old make more stacking shelves idea. Lidl advertise jobs at £12 per hour. £25k per year assuming 40 hrs paid per week.I suspect their pension is poor.

A cop in Scotland with 11 years service is on £45k. Plus a good pension. Plus more varied and interesting, if challenging, work.

5years service it is £1000 a month more than Lidl. Pension, and on the way to being a higher rate taxpayer.



https://www.scotland.police.uk/about-us/finance/pa...

Promoted posts obviously higher paid in both workplaces.

So if £45k without promotion or overtime is poorly paid how much should we pay cops?

Incidentally a cop on £45k is in the top 11% of earners in Scotland.


https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-income-...

Edited by irc on Friday 5th May 14:36