January

Deputy Sheriff | Alameda County, CA Deputy Sheriff Harinder Kaur Khalsa, originally from Birmingham, England, is the longest serving turbaned Sikh American in a law enforcement position in the United States. Deputy Sheriff Khalsa, who has also been a social worker, enjoys working with people, using her Punjabi language skills at her job and de-escalating potentially dangerous situations in Alameda County, California.

In 2009, Deputy Sheriff Khalsa was told she could not wear her turban while in her sheriff's uniform, forcing her into a non-uniformed desk assignment that kept her segregated from the public. After years of community advocacy, in 2013, the Alameda County Sheriff's Office complied with a new state law against workplace discrimination. This finally allowed Deputy Sheriff Khalsa to wear her turban with her uniform and made all uniformed assignments available to her.