Scots cops with beards ordered to shave them off before they start their shift

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Police officers with beards have been ordered to shave them off. Traffic officers were told last week to get rid of facial hair unless they had a medical or religious exemption.

Rules were introduced at the beginning of the pandemic demanding police to be clean shaven in order to have high-quality Covid masks fitted.

But the requirement is understood to have fallen by the wayside as virus fears faded. A source said: “Quite a few officers with beards of various lengths were not happy at a communication from the bosses last week that they would be expected to be clean shaven for their shift.“It feels like a return to the ­appearance standards of old when officers had to be over 6ft tall with shoes shined and couldn’t have facial hair or tattoos.

Tattoos are still allowed and this appears to be entirely to do with the Covid masks but it is still not popular with everyone.”Rules on police having beards vary from force to force across the UK.