West Midlands Police force would consider allowing officers to wear burkas on duty

West Midlands police said there were 'no barriers' relating to the burka
Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty Images
Tom Powell9 September 2016

One of the country’s biggest police forces is considering letting Muslim officers wear burkas in order to boost diversity.

West Midlands Police said it would consider requests from officers who may want to wear the traditional Islamic garment, which covers the entire face except the eyes.

Chief Constable David Thompson said at a meeting that although they had not received any requests yet, he would discuss allowing officers to wear burkas.

It is part of a plan to increase black and minority ethnic (BME) officers in the region to 30%.

The force has already recruited some women wanting to wear a hijab, a headscarf which only covers the head and neck.

The Metropolitan police approved the hijab a decade ago and it is now allowed in several forces across the UK.

According to Mail Online, Chief Constable Thompson said: “We would need to consider our own rules and cultural sensitivity.

“Clearly we don't have any barriers relating to the burka.

“As it stands we have not had any approaches from potential recruits asking to wear the burka, but if such an approach was made it is something we would have to consider.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in