An independent arbitrator has sided with a police union over an edict requiring rank-and-file Chicago officers to cover up their tattoos.
Arbitrator Jacalyn Zimmerman upheld a grievance filed by the Fraternal Order of Police, finding that former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy violated the contract when he "unilaterally" put the policy into affect last June, according to The Chicago Sun-Times.
The decision comes five months after a federal judge ruled that the banning of visible tattoos does not violate an officer's First Amendment rights.
"The appropriate remedy is for the department to rescind the revisions and restore the prior policy, rescind and make employees whole for any discipline issued pursuant to these revisions and to make employees whole for any discipline issued pursuant to these revisions and to make employees whole for their demonstrable losses resulting from compliance with the revisions," Zimmerman wrote.
Chicago Police spokesman Frank Giancamilli said that the department is currently reviewing the arbitrator's ruling and plans to make a decision in the "near future."
The FOP touted the decision on its website as a "win" and that officials "saw this as a unilateral change to working conditions and we were not going to stand by and allow the department to arbitrarily harm the affected members."
