NYPD to crack down on ‘sloppy’ cops with ban on shorts, white turtlenecks, cargo pants

They’re real fashion police: Fed up with sloppy cops, the NYPD has moved to update its dress code, banning shorts on transit beats and white turtlenecks while on patrol.

The department’s updated style guide, set to take effect next month, also instructs patrol officers not to wear tactical cargo pants and reinforces longstanding guidance including a tire on shoelaces that are not black.

NEW YORK - JULY 11: An NYPD officer keeps watch inside Times Square subway station July 11, 2006 in New York City.  Police raised security on subways in the city following the bombings of trains in India that killed at least 147 people.  (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

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An NYPD officer keeps watch inside the Times Square subway station in this file photo. Fed up with sloppy cops, the city Police Department has moved to update its dress code, banning shorts on transit beats and white turtlenecks on patrol beats. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Inspector Paul Saraceno, who led a committee that has reviewed police attire since last summer, presented the crackdown as an effort to ensure a uniform, professional-looking force, rather than a product of any specific faux pas.

“I believe that in every profession, if you take it seriously and you act professionally, you dress professionally, you present yourself the same way, it revolves around everything you do,” Saraceno said.

“If you’re not squared away, if you’re sloppy, it speaks to who you are,” he added. “We expect professionalism in every aspect.”

But the plan drew a rebuke from the city’s biggest cop union.

(NYPD PBA President Patrick Hendry) Arraignment of five men who were allegedly involved in a Gang Assault on two NYPD Officers in Midtown at the Criminal Courthouse at 100 Center Street in Manhattan on Friday Feb.  16, 2024. 1104. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)
Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association, speaks to the press at Manhattan Criminal Court on Center St. in Manhattan on Friday, Feb. 16, 2024. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)

Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association, vowed to file a legal challenge to the new rules, predicting they would drive officers out of the force.

“The department’s timing and handling of these changes is completely off,” he said in a statement. “The NYPD has much bigger problems to address – we are still understaffed by thousands and losing hundreds of cops every month.”

The new rules are set to take effect May 6, according to guidance issued Monday. Supervisors will still retain the power to authorize the use of short-sleeve shirts on days when the temperature is expected to top 65 degrees.

But short sleeves paired with V-necked sweaters are to be banned. Those outer garments call for a long-sleeve shirt and tie, according to the memo.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MARCH 06: NYPD officers patrol a subway station on March 06, 2024 in New York City.  Following a surge in crime on the subways, New York Governor Kathy Hochul revealed a five-point plan to bring state resources, the deployment of 750 National Guard members and 250 New York State and MTA police officers, into the subway system.  Violence in the subway system, the nation's largest, has surged this year over last.  (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The NYPD plans to update its style rules for transit cops. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Saraceno said the department is also considering banning beards, except in cases where officers have medical or religious exemptions. In 2020, the NYPD relaxed a longstanding prohibition on facial hair.

Over the years, officers have sometimes relaxed in their choice of attire. After 9/11, for example, more patrol officers were seen wearing cargo pants.

In 2013, then-Chief of Department Philip Banks, in a 10-page memo, outlined a crackdown on sloppy cops, urging officers to shine their shoes, cover their tattoos and straighten out their caps.

Banks, now the deputy mayor for public safety, said officers’ appearances must be “clean and conform to all standards.”

At the time, he told the Daily News that the public had more confidence in public servants who looked professional.

NYPD Midtown North Officers tries to block New York Daily News photographer from take pictures of EMS workers loading an injured worker to an ambulance outside building located at 550 Madison Avenue (formerly known as the Sony Tower, Sony Plaza, and AT&T Building) where a acetylene explosion early Wednesday, July 12, 2023 injured two workers on the 34th floor of the iconic tower.  (Photo by: Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Daily News)
Inspector Paul Saraceno said the department is also considering banning beards, except in cases where officers have medical or religious exemptions. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News)

This spring’s directive says that standard uniform pants, known as twill pants, must be worn by all officers in uniform. And choices will be limited to one style from one company.

Saraceno suggested the move was intended to prevent police partners having mismatched uniforms.

White turtlenecks, Saraceno said, are going the way of light blue shirts banned by the NYPD three decades ago. The white turtlenecks are being ushered out because they show grime quickly.

In the winter months, when the temperature falls below freezing, NYPD winter hats will still be permitted, with embossed NYPD lettering front and center on the forehead.

Several police officers said they too often see officers with the lettering askew. They also balked at officers who wear the approved NYPD baseball cap tilted to the side or up.

“You ever saw a state trooper dressed poorly?” one officer asked. “You see them, and you know they mean business.”