HARRISBURG, Pa. — A historic change for Pennsylvania State Police: For the first time since its founding in 1905, people with arm tattoos can become a state trooper.
"This is huge," said Lt. Robert Bailey, Commander of Recruitment Services for the Pennsylvania State Police.
Effective immediately, people with arm tattoos will no longer be disqualified from becoming a trooper, and enlisted members can get ink on their biceps and forearms.
"We always had a traditional mindset," added Lt. Bailey. "We always like professionalism, and we kind of opted out the transition towards tattoos; however, it’s 2020. We want to have the ability to recruit qualified applicants in certain pools like athletes so our military personnel. They can serve the military, however they can't become a Pennsylvania State Trooper, and that's something Colonel Evanchick really took serious."
Moving forward, Lt. Bailey expects to recruit upwards of 1,000 additional people every year to the Pennsylvania State Police in doing so, with eyes on millennials.
“37% have tattoos, and that's the population we're trying to recruit so we're hindering that population from pursuing opportunity in our agency by not revisiting our policy," added Lt. Bailey. "Now, you have an applicant just pursuing to come and stay trooper - he has a tattoo here on his forearm, per se, he now is required to wear a long sleeve uniform."
Anyone with an arm tattoo can't wear the agency's short sleeve uniform, and any ink will still be reviewed by the agency’s tattoo board for appropriateness. The goal is to make troopers more representative of the Commonwealth and bring the agency into 2020.
Pennsylvania isn’t the first place where policy has changed and made it possible to have ink.
Other states, like Vermont and Maine, have also loosened their tattoo policies for state troopers. Lt. Bailey says it's all about keeping up with the times.
The change comes at a good time; people can apply to become a Pennsylvania State Trooper now through May 15th.