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A reader — and I use the term loosely — expresses deep anxiety about a story in the Daily Mail, about the police being issued with hijabs in case they have to enter a mosque. When are they going to start issuing the police with kippot in case they have to go in to a shul, she complained.
In some confusion, and given that I admit a built-in prejudice against anything that appears in the Daily Mail, I sought a little enlightenment. It turns out that the Avon and Somerset Constabulary have taken the interesting initiative of equipping its female officers with a uniform issue hijab. They are, in fact, £13 headscarves, embroidered with the force's name and logo, and are designed to be multi-faith: "They are designed to be used in any place of worship and can be used to cover the head or the shoulders. For example, plain clothes officers could use them to cover their shoulders in a Catholic Church, or they can be used to cover the head in synagogues."
For the life of me, I don't see what is wrong with that. I imagine the Mail put a typically spiteful anti-immigrant spin on the story, but frankly, I think the police should be encouraged if they are trying to show respect for religious observance, of whatever stripe.
Oh, and by the way, I imagine the reason police aren't issued with kippot is because they already have ways of covering their heads inside a synagogue. They're called caps or helmets.