Overcoming hardest hurdles, Sikh father son duo stand tall in the USA Police Department
Ujjawala Nayudu
New Delhi, April 7
Battling all hurdles from preparation of joining the police to overcoming the objections of sporting a turban and beard in uniform, father son duo, Sukhdeep Gill and Jatinder Gill are examples of strength, persistence and passion for policing.
Working as deputy sheriff at San Jose in California of the USA, a young officer Sukhdeep Gill (28) has a long road to travel.
As a deputy sheriff, Sukhdeep ensures law and order in his county, investigates cases before the cases are handed over to specialized investigators for further investigations.
Sukhdeep said, “The law enforcement in USA comprises of thousands of officers who work at federal, state or at county levels. The jurisdictions are designated. I am a county police official who looks after patrol and investigations”.
“The policing in US is very organized. They believe in specializations of investigations. As a deputy sheriff, I look into the cases that arrive the police station, probe and make reports. After the reports are made, the file gets transferred to a specialized investigator who specializes in murder, rape, thefts, accidents and more respectively. The case is then probed further and taken up for prosecution. Besides that we are in charge of patrolling in the area for the overall control of law and order”.
As a young high school passout, nursing attracted him however the one incident in his childhood made his resolve for policing stronger.
Recalling an incident in childhood, Sukhdeep said, “I was twelve-years-old when my father and I were harassed, made to kneel down in our house by the cops. Since my father sports a beard and a turban, we were branded as terrorists. I decided to become a law enforcement officer and ensure more educated and aware citizens join police”.
Another incident which left a scar on his mind was the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001 in America. He said, “I was very young and the incident had shook all of us in America. The Americans had begun to hate Sikhs as they were unaware that we sport a turban and a beard for our religion (Sikhism). Many Sikhs were attacked and the media was full of news on attacks on Sikhs. I thought to myself that now more and more Sikhs must join the US police and become protectors of law instead of misusers”.
Sukhdeep calls his recruitment as a doubly challenging opportunity compared to any other US citizens’ in the police.
Sukhdeep said, “It’s a challenge for a Sikh to even apply for the police jobs in the USA. I underwent layers of scrutiny to get selected and after the selection the challenge was doublefold. Though the Bill AB1964 was passed in US that allowed law enforcement officers with religious grooming practices, I had to again and again remind recruiters who questioned my faith that I am allowed to sport a beard and turban and yet be a cop. I had to over prepare as compared to a White to get selected in every dimension of recruitment”.
Sukhdeep mentioned that though there are many Sikh youth who have joined US police yet the police department still needs more awareness on India, her culture and religious practices.
He said, “It is very sad to mention that even today if they want to show a photo of an unknown terrorist on media, they sport a photo of a Sikh man. The generalization of Sikhs with Muslims or Hindus is a still a practice among the Americans and they need lot of education to learn about cultures”.
Sukhdeep’s first posting was at Santa Clara County that overlooks the area that houses headquarters of the top IT companies housing lakhs of Indian population. He has also worked at the jail correction facility centre too.
The young officer loves wrestling and used to wrestle in school before getting into running and sports to maintain his fitness. Sukhdeep stated that the US police believes in ensuring fitness of policemen and has a gym in every police station where the policemen dedicate one hour of their time for fitness.
Talking about a usually stressful life of a policeman, Sukhdeep said, “We deal with lot of politics within the department and outside too. However, the happiness quotient is not to mix work with play. The US police is bureaucratic and also hierarchical however the seniors are cheerful. Unless, there are biased, the superiors are supportive”.
The US police too ensures good physical and mental health of their cops.
Sukhdeep added, “We are provided with regular mental health services as we keep seeing active shooters, kids getting shots, hostage situations, terror cases and more. We enroll in several physical training programme that regularly take place. We are regularly trained and sent to academies”.
The pay structure of US cops is high and they are also provided with good benefits from insurances to post retirement plans.
Sukhdeep said, “An officer in Florida might earn 20,000 USD while an officer in California might earn 40,000 USD. It depends on the state’s administration and its law and taxes. However be the pay structure of the cops, one thing that makes me proud is that there is no corruption. No one pays you over or under the table to dispose off cases or pressurize to close investigations”.
The US police force is regarded as the most developed police forces in the world with latest weaponry and arms.
The force uses Glock pistols and AR15 rifles as well as Mossberg shotguns. The police have Ford Explorers and Dodge Charger as police cars.
Sukhdeep credits his father for being his motivation all throughout. Jatinder Gill is the first officer in any law enforcement agencies in California who fought to wear his turban and sport a beard as a cop.
Jatinder Gill is a highway patrol officer at California and the first officer to sport a turban in any law enforcement agency of the USA. An engineer by education, he migrated to the USA in 1990s and worked at various IT companies before joining the police.
Gill said, “I started by driving trucks for the department transport where I got inspired to join the DOT. I started preparing for the exams and cleared with 97%. I was rejected twice in the interviews. However in the final lap, one officer who knew about the contribution of the Sikh regiment in WWI agreed to see my percentile and not my religion”.
As a cop, Gill also trains in CIEP programme, a federal programme for commercial industries on how to stay in compliance with law. The father son duo unfazed by challenges are determined to contribute a lot to the USA Police.
