If you see uniformed Richmond Police officers sporting beards and mustaches, they have the OK of the top brass.

Interim Police Chief William C. Smith made it possible. He quietly amended the department’s grooming policy to allow patrol officers to grow and wear neatly trimmed beards, goatees and mustaches.

The department’s detectives and civilian employees have long been permitted to grow facial hair, according to department spokesman Gene Lepley, but department guidelines have required officers wearing uniforms to be clean-shaven.

The only exception was if the city’s medical service provider recommended beard growth.

“In regards to the change,” Mr. Lepley stated in response to a Free Press query, “the department is consistently looking at the evolution of law enforcement and questioning whether certain traditions play a part in officers’ successful performance of the essential functions of the job.

“Without tangible evidence that a beard or goatee is a hindrance to an individual’s performance, (the chief) decided to revise our policy. Thus far, we haven’t had any issues, and many officers are enjoying the opportunity,” Mr. Lepley stated.

Mr. Lepley said Chief Smith’s executive order, issued Jan. 31 with little fanfare, allows beards that are no more than one-half inch in length and are not shaped in some fashion other than from natural growth.

There are limits. The executive order bars handlebar mustaches, soul patches, lumberjack mustaches, Van Dyke or chinstrap-style beards or anything similar.

The order also requires recruits enrolled in training to be clean-shaven unless they receive permission for facial hair on religious or medical grounds.