ROWAN COUNTY, N.C. — The Salisbury Police Department has just recently updated its tattoo policy.
Officers with the Salisbury Police Department are no longer required to cover their arm tattoos.
The new policy will allow officers to have tattoos that go down their arms, but not past the wrist or above the collar bone.
“Police officers are just like everybody else,” Officer Barry Bunch told Spectrum News. “We may have just chosen a different line of work, but as far as that goes we like tattoos we also like beards and all kinds of things like that.”
This decision follows a similar trend among police departments around the country.
The Portland Police Bureau, in Portland, Oregon, is considering allowing full beards and tattoos above the collar as they try to fill 100+ vacancies.
"These changes to policies were made after careful review of our hiring process in the attempt to identify potential barriers to entry," said Chief Danielle Outlaw. "We will revisit the effectiveness of these changes after two years to determine if our hiring numbers have increased."