NYPD Will Now Allow People to Wear Religious Head Coverings in Booking Photos

Photo Courtesy of Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

The New York Police Department will now allow people to wear religious head coverings during booking photos as part of a settlement with two Muslim women who said they were forced to remove their hijabs by male officers.

The new policy will also cover Sikh turbans and Jewish yarmulkes.

A person can have their driver’s license or other ID photo taken with a religious head covering on, so “there’s no reason why the NYPD should require them to remove these same head coverings” when they’ve been accused of a crime, said Albert Fox Cahn, an attorney for some of the plaintiffs.