Rule Puts Male Officers on Their Ear

MINNEAPOLIS —  Police Chief Tony Bouza’s decision to allow female officers to wear earrings on the job has upset some of the men on the force, who say the policy discriminates against them.

“We feel it’s preferential treatment,” Capt. Bruce Lindberg, president of the Minneapolis Police Officers Federation, said last week. “We’re not going to contest it, but if in the future the males want something special, we hope the chief won’t fight us.”

Asked why the policy will be restricted to women, Bouza said, “Because I say so. . . . I don’t let men wear bras and skirts” either.

Bouza said he made the decision after receiving a letter last week from Officer Mary Ketzner, whose superiors had ordered her to remove her earrings.

“I, along with other women police officers, feel that this policy is outdated and unreasonable,” Ketzner wrote the chief.

Ketzner’s supervisor, Lt. Bob Johnson, said earrings are a safety hazard and could hamper a police officer’s performance. “They could tear out in a struggle or catch easily on equipment,” he said.

The earring policy contains some restrictions: Only one piece of jewelry per ear and no jewelry that hangs from the ear lobe.

Deputy Chief Robert Lutz, who is charged with writing the new regulations, defended the exclusion of men from the earring rule.

“This is not available to male officers because this is female jewelry in our culture,” Lutz said. “Period.”