NYPD Nixes Ban On Religious Head Coverings In Mugshots

NEW YORK CITY — NYPD officers can no longer require people to remove religious head coverings like hijabs for mugshots, according to a settlement reached last week in federal district court in Manhattan.

The settlement ends a legal fight began in 2017 by two Muslim women who were forced to remove their hijabs in jail while police officers and male prisoners looked on.

The women sued and accused the City of New York, through its police department, of violating their First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment protections. Their lawsuit describes one woman as feeling “humiliated, distraught” and another feeling “as if she were naked in a public space.”

Albert Fox Cahn, a lawyer who represented the women in the suit, said in a statement that the settlement is a milestone for privacy and religious rights, but the effort is not yet over.

"Sadly, the fight isn't completely over, we still have to make sure that the thousands of New Yorkers already punished under this policy get redress for the harm they suffered," Cahn wrote on Twitter. "Still, it's amazing to know that no other New Yorker will have to endure this type of abuse."

The settlement applies to all types of religious head coverings including the yarmulke, wig, habit, turban, kufi, headscarf, hijab, burqa and more. It also prohibits head coverings from being removed during searches unless certain criteria are met.

Now, borough courts have 60 days to implement the new guidance that states a person who wears a religious head covering cannot be made to remove it unless a distinguishing feature like a tattoo, piercing, mole or birthmark would not be visible otherwise.

A person can also photographed without a head covering if he or she is suspected of committing a crime outside their home without wearing one.

If a person is photographed without a head covering, the settlement requires that the suspect or prisoner be taken to a private area and photographed by a staff member of the same gender. They must also be provided a temporary head covering if theirs is taken for safekeeping or evidentiary reasons.

The settlement also applies to searches and dictates that head coverings can only be removed during a search when it is done in a private room by an officer of the same gender as the suspect.

The agreement requires that the “oval of the face” — including the eyes, nose, mouth, forehead, nose, chin and jawline — be visible in mugshots.