The Columbus Police Division has decided to continue its ban on head scarves for officers.
“We want to interact with all members of the community without a preconceived notion of who we are,” Deputy Chief Michael Woods said today.
“We strive to be a nonpolitical, nonreligious organization.”
Division officials made the decision even though other police departments in North American cities have made accommodations for head scarves as they try to boost recruitment in communities that are becoming more diverse.
Woods said police officials consulted with the city attorney’s office and current case law supports the decision, which he said was ultimately made by Chief Kim Jacobs.
“What I know is that our goal is to display neutrality in our uniform,” Woods said.
In April, The Dispatch wrote about the dilemma faced by Ismahan Isse, a Somali-American and a Muslim who dropped out of the Columbus police academy in March because of the head-scarf ban.
Isse said that her scarf, or hijab, was important to her identity and that she’d like to return to the academy if the rule was changed. It had been her dream to become an officer, she said.
Isse could not be reached today.
Mayor Michael B. Coleman asked Columbus safety officials to re-examine the policy after The Dispatch inquiry. At the time, Coleman thought the policy could affect recruiting, and his spokesman said that Coleman wanted to diversify the Police Division.
Woods said police did not talk to anyone in the Muslim community or the city’s Community Relations Commission before making the decision.
That disappoints Romin Iqbal, staff attorney for the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Ohio chapter.
“I’m baffled and very disappointed that the city continues to not allow a whole population of Columbus to become cops,” Iqbal said.
The division’s concerns about uniformity of dress, he said, could be easily addressed by modifying the color and style of head scarves worn by Muslim women.
The Ohio Constitution gives people a right to religious expression at work, he added. And the city has to prove it has a compelling reason not to allow a woman officer to wear a head scarf and that it is advancing that interest by the “least restrictive” means possible.
“Our police department needs to show they are interested in diversity and want to represent the diverse people in Columbus,” he said.
Case law supports the decision to maintain the policy, said Assistant City Attorney Jeff Furbee, who represents the Police Division. In 2007, a federal judge in Philadelphia ruled that that city’s police department didn’t violate the civil rights of a Muslim officer when it forbade her from wearing a head scarf.
The judge said that “prohibiting religious symbols and attire helps to prevent any divisiveness on the basis of religion both within the force itself and when it encounters the diverse population of Philadelphia.”
Furbee said there is no case law in Ohio or in Ohio’s federal circuit court that says Columbus can’t have this policy.
“It’s something we will monitor as we continue to go forward over time,” he said.