Police chief defends lockdown haircuts for officers

A pop-up barber shop that was set up at the city police station twice in April and twice again in January to provide officers with haircuts during provincial COVID-19 lockdowns is unlikely to return if there is a future lockdown, city police Chief Scott Gilbert said Friday.

Gilbert defended the haircuts because they allowed officers to be “fit for duty” by being able to properly wear their equipment and maintain their appearance standards.

“Quite honestly, I think everybody looked at the safety concerns for the officers, but they didn’t look at the optics of how the community might view that,” Gilbert said when asked at a teleconference briefing Friday whether the haircuts would be allowed if there was another lockdown in Peterborough.

“If you look at the lens of how some members of the community viewed it, I think we will have to be much more cognizant of that and I would probably suggest that the answer would be no, they won’t be allowed. However we’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Some Peterborough barbers are upset that one barber was

contracted to provide the haircuts during times when all the other hair salons had to stay closed.

Gilbert told reporters at a teleconference briefing on the pandemic on Friday that front-line officers asked commanders for permission to bring in a barber for haircuts so that officers could properly wear their safety equipment, including bike helmets, ballistic helmets and radio earpieces.

“So that all of that equipment would fit properly and wouldn’t cause an officer safety issue,” Gilbert explained. “Police officers have appearance standards that they have to maintain and that was not the least of it part of the reason for it.”

According to city police policy, officers’ hair must be kept short with trimmed sideburns extending no further down than the upper portion of the lobe of the ear and no wider than 2 1/2 centimetres.

Further, uniformed female officers must arrange their hair so that it does not extend beyond the top of the shirt collar and it does not prevent caps from sitting close to the head.

After the officers made the request, city police administration went to Peterborough Public Health for approval for the haircuts to be provided safely, he said.

The health unit provided guidelines which were then complied with, Gilbert said.

Face shields, gowns and cleaning supplies were used for the haircuts, he said.

The officers paid for the haircuts, he said, so they didn’t cost taxpayers anything.

The officers themselves selected which barber was brought in to the station, Gilbert said. It could have easily have been any other barber in the community, he said.

“We are cognizant of the optics of it and we promise to do better,” Gilbert said.

Medical officer of health Dr. Rosana Salvaterra said Gilbert approached her for advice in setting up the haircuts and then it was left in his hands to ensure the protocols were followed.

“I think it is really unfortunate that this news has irritated some community members. I understand we have been at this for over a year and people are getting tired and that it has meant that many people have had to sacrifice a great deal,” Salvaterra told reporters.

“It was all done very well and under my direction.”