During a move back in the early 80’s to have police officers walking beats downtown, something which was a pure public relations gesture, my partner and I did our best to be seen. Some of our efforts reminded the local business owners that they only had a business on the street that went past; not ownership rights to that street. We did take it upon ourselves to do a complete traffic study of the six blocks assigned to us, indicate changes to parking zones and general traffic movement we thought would benefit everyone. Many of our suggestions were acted upon and my partner and I received a Chief’s Commendation for our efforts; this was just before they tried to fire us for these same efforts, another story that I might share one day. I used to cut the shoulder patch off of my worn out police shirts, the ones that I was supposed to turn back in to be destroyed to keep the bad guys from pretending to be cops, I would glue those patches to trophy plaques. I would then engrave the award, "HPD Watering Hole", and give them to businesses that were pro-police; those who let us use their facilities, lunch rooms, and the like. We even gave a plaque to the Blood Center, a place we would visit every so many months to donate our blood.
I’m giving a tip of the hat to Ted at Musings of an Old Man for his post, “Top Cop”. (linked via title bar) His photo of a police shoulder patch reminded me of those times.
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