Let it grow: Glendale police put down razors to raise funds for one of their own

For the first time since he worked undercover 25 years ago, Glendale Police Chief Robert Castro is growing a beard.

Dozens of other Glendale cops — who are usually expected to be clean shaven — also threw out the razor this month as part of a fundraiser to build a wheelchair lift for one of their own.

The campaign has generated more than $14,000 for longtime volunteer and employee Jorge Acevedo, who’d aspired to become a police officer before he was shot in a car-to-car shooting 17 years ago while driving holiday gifts to his family.

The agency has raised thousands of dollars in the past to make Acevedo’s home more accessible because the attack left him bound to a wheelchair. But after having a stroke last summer, Acevedo lost more mobility, leaving family members to have to carry him up the stairs of his home, police said. Since then, he’s been unable to return to work.

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Police launched the beard campaign this month to raise an additional $8,000 to finish building a wheelchair lift at Acevedo’s home. For $50, male officers can grow beards, while female officers can wear mustache-themed nail art. More than 100 officers, including Castro and his command staff, are involved.

At first, Castro was leery about allowing uniformed officers to get scruffy.

“I didn’t want to do anything I thought would take away from the professionalism of the Glendale Police Department,” Castro said. However, he felt the cause was so worthy that, “I said, ‘You know what? We’ll do it.’”

The fundraiser marks the second time in the department’s history that uniformed officers were allowed to grow facial hair, officials said. The first was in 1956, during the city’s 50th anniversary celebration.

Acevedo, who started volunteering for the agency in 2001 before he was hired as a civilian employee, is known around the station for his positive attitude and constant smile.

“Jorge is crazy inspirational,” said Glendale Police Lt. Tim Feeley, who proposed the idea for the fundraiser to the command staff by Photoshopping beards on their photos. “He really shows you the heart that the police department has.”

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Alene Tchekmedyian, alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @atchek