Judicial police candidates with tattoos that encourage violence, flaps or forked tongues will be rejected, according to a Pennsylvania order released Friday that clarifies some rules for entry into the profession.
Concerns over the type and location of tattoos, piercings or other bodily modifications of candidates wishing to join the police career have prompted the national director of the force to issue an order clarifying the rules for recruitment and promotion competitions.
The order confirms that candidates can make changes to their bodies as long as it does not affect “the performance of professional activities, normal presentation or ability to serve.”
Forking the tongue, putting on enlargers, sharpening the teeth or making tattoos in the eye sockets are some of the forbidden changes and decorations.
The SP director explains that tattoos, body modifications and decorations “that encourage violence or are in any way associated with criminal culture” are also unacceptable.
Messages or images that promote or defend “racial, gender, ethnic, religious or national hatred or intolerance” will also not be accepted, according to the order published today in Diário da República.
Other prohibitions include encouraging illegal means of depriving citizens of their rights or representing “illegal organizations or movements, as well as anti-democratic, militant or anti-human rights ideologies and values.”
In other words, they must not have visible tattoos – from head to nipples, on arms and from knees to feet – that “compromise PJ’s image.”
However, the SP acknowledges that candidates who reverse or undo illegal body modifications may be accepted into the academy.
National Director Luis Nunes das Neves specifies that the suspension or cancellation must be completed “before the notification of the hearing of the draft final list of orders of the tender procedure, remaining in the procedure conditionally.”
The order explains that having these tattoos or alterations could result in, for example, “lack of trust, loss of credibility, impairment of impartiality, and exemption from liability.”
In short, the rules defined for access to the profession are based on the “constitutional set of rights, freedoms and guarantees and the fundamental rights provided for in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” and must also comply with the criteria used in other countries by similar bodies.
Also, the PSP and the GNR have rules for the use of tattoos and exclude candidates for new police officers who are prohibited from having tattoos, with the exception of those who express an intention to remove them by the end of the course.
The two security forces prohibit “tattoos containing symbols, words or drawings of a partisan, extremist, racist nature or calling for violence.”
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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