How many times a month does a police officer need to get their hair cut? That is the debate going on in the southern Chinese city of Shenzen after authorities found out that local cops there had budgeted nearly two million RMB (US$32,000) over a two-year period to have each of its more than 2,000 police officers have three haircuts a month.

While city authorities are questioning the necessity of the cops’ excessive visits to the barber, local citizens are outraged and are demanding a more “reasonable” haircut budget from their police force.

The haircut budget controversy was reported last week in the China’s New Express Daily with the newspaper saying that the cops in Shenzen’s Luohu District had been asked by local authorities to justify the huge amount set aside for haircuts. The police were asked whether they thought three times a month was too much and responded by saying: “We are in a special industry that demands a very strict hairstyle. Three times a month is perfectly reasonable.”

This caught the ire of local citizens who didn’t like the prospect of paying 13 yuan each time the district 2,170 cops went in for a quick trim. Some even called the excessive haircuts “barber welfare” and pointed out that many other professions that require a “strict haircut” aren’t giving out free trips to the barber shop.

The budget authorities in Shenzhen will likely continue to debate whether or not their cops deserve what basically amounts to a haircut subsidy. If the cops end up having to pay for their own haircuts in the future, we hope they take it better than our good friend Jin Dan did when his haircut regime changed.

Source: Toychan Net