FORT WORTH, Texas — At his introductory press conference in November, newly-named Fort Worth Police Chief Ed Kraus took a pretty bold stance on beards.
"Okay, so let me speak to the officers of the Fort Worth Police Department," he said, speaking lightheartedly from a podium at a press conference. "We’re not going to have beards, not in the foreseeable future."
The beard question came after the department, under Kraus' leadership, let officers participate in 'No Shave November' for the very first time, raising thousands of dollars for St. Jude.
"They can continue to keep the beards until the end of the year, and that’s where it's going to stop for now," Kraus concluded.
But the chief appears to have quickly turned about-face on facial hair, to the delight of many of his officers.
In a comical video posted to Facebook, the chief is shown shaving an officer's beard before he delivers the news.
"I think it looked better with the beard," another officer said in the video.
"I think you’re right," Kraus responded. "Fort Worth police, you can keep the beards through the end of May."
So what changed?
"Well, I'll tell you what happened," said Officer Buddy Calzada. "We had a chief here that listens to a lot of people, doesn’t just make decisions but listens to us."
And enough people spoke out favorable about beards that the chief changed his mind-- for the next five months.
Fort Worth now joins a growing number of departments letting their officers grow beards, like Southlake and Dallas.
Beards have historically been banned by departments on account of appearance and even safety reasons.
Arlington police and the Wise County Sheriff's Office prohibit them.
But for some departments, times appear to be changing: they've acknowledged beards are part of current style, and if kept clean and trim, don't make much of an impact.
"2020, year of the beard," joked Calzada, who has not yet grown facial hair on the job. "You know, I like to grow a little goatee myself."
And now he can go ahead with that goatee, or whatever other facial hair he wants, at least until May.
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