Prior Lake police get hairy for No-Shave November campaign

Prior Lake American

Some Prior Lake police officers have seemed a little scruffy lately.

Members of the Prior Lake Police Department — including Police Chief Mark Elliott — participated in No-Shave November or Movember, which are two separate campaigns to raise awareness regarding men’s health.

“I had a couple officers that approached and asked about the possibility to participate in the No-Shave November or the Movember movements,” Elliott said.

No-Shave November is dedicated to cancer prevention and awareness and Movember tackles prostate and testicular cancer, as well as mental health and suicide prevention. How awareness and funds are achieved, however, is the same: Grow some hair.

Participating officers started from scratch due to the department’s policy on facial hair.

“We have a clean-shaven policy here and part of that is based on operational needs — with a beard, you can’t have a good feel for a mask or respiration-type device,” Elliott said.

Elliott said he allowed the officers to take the month break from the policy, as long as whoever participated took the time to work on their own health.

“If they’re well and they’re in a good place in their wellness, they’ll be able to do a better job of taking care of others,” Elliott said.

Officer wellness is also one of the pillars of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, commissioned by former president Barack Obama.

“We need to take care of our officers so they are in a good place to help others,” Elliott said. “We’ve been distributing information to them on wellness and healthy lifestyle type things.”