Jasjit Singh Jaggi

NEW YORK - The New York Police Department violated the civil rights of a Sikh traffic enforcement agent when it threatened to fire him if he did not cut his hair and remove his turban, an administrative law judge has found.

The judge, Donna R. Merris, found that the department had not shown that a turban would significantly compromise public safety and that there was no evidence that the department had “seriously considered” the agent’s request for accommodation. For religious reasons, Sikh men are required to wear turbans in public and forbidden to cut their hair and beards.

The judge’s opinion, issued on April 21 and first reported on April 22 in The Daily News of New York, is only a recommendation and must be formalized in a final order by the human rights commissioner, Patricia L. Gatling. If that happens, the city would have the right to appeal the decision in state court.

The case pit the city’s Human Rights Commission against its Police Department.

Eamonn F. Foley, the assistant corporation counsel on the case, said the city disagreed with the recommendation and would submit further comments to the commissioner.

The department’s refusal to allow turbans comes as some police departments have made special efforts to recruit Sikhs, many of whom felt that they were mistakenly shunned after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and reassure them that their religious requirements will not be an issue.

The petitioner in the New York case, Jasjit Singh Jaggi, joined the department in 2001 and agreed to remove his turban while seeking a change in department policy.

Jaggi, 36, graduated as valedictorian of his academy class, but the department continued to insist that he not wear a turban. In June 2002, he filed a complaint with the Commission on Human Rights, and in August he began reporting for work in a turban, writing the department that it was “humiliating and depressing” to go without one.

Presented with the choice of being fired or resigning, he resigned, and now manages a Red Carpet Inn in Killington, Vt. Thursday, he said he and his family would move back to Richmond Hill, Queens, if the department reinstated him. “It’s a victory for the whole community,” he said. “I feel at first like a naked person, you know, without the turban. Because Sikh identity starts with the turban.”

The Police Department argued that traffic agents would be hard to recognize without the “eight-point” white hats they are required to wear. Turbans and beards, the department says, do not allow the use of gas masks in an emergency, dilute the “esprit de corps” a uniform encourages, and compromise the neutral image the department strives for.

In her recommendation, the judge pointed out that from the neck down, Jaggi would be wearing the standard uniform, along with a department-issued chrome shield on the front center of his turban. She added that the department allows agents to wear a “nondescript black leather cap” in winter, and that in the event of an emergency requiring a gas mask, it would take “about one second” to remove the turban.

The Police Department referred questions about the case to the Law Department. In a similar case that is pending, Amric Singh Rathour, a traffic agent who was fired for wearing a turban, sued the city in U.S. District Court in March 2003.

(By Permission, The New York Times)