Syracuse unveils new patches and badges during Heritage Days
REYNAlDO lEAl/Standard-ExaminerSyracuse Police Chief Garret Atkin holds the new police badge in his office in Syracuse on Wednesday.
REYNAlDO lEAl/Standard-ExaminerPatches and police badges have changed throughout the years in the Syracuse Police Department. The sequence of badges shows the newest design (top) to the oldest.
SYRACUSE — Antelope Island is not just part of Syracuse’s horizon, but a part of its police department’s badges and patches.
The new patches and badges were unveiled during Syracuse Heritage Days, Police Chief Garret Atkin said.
“We wanted a design that tied us to the community,” Atkin said.
The designs, by Creative Culture Insignia in Ogden, are the third in the department’s history as far as Atkin knows.
When Atkin became police chief in December, he asked his staff if they wanted to change the badge and patch designs. The previous designs had been with the department “for a long time,” Atkin said.
Atkin said if the officers had said no, he would have not sought a new design, but the majority believed the time was right for a new look.
The new patches are worn on the uniforms that all duty patrol officers wear. The badges or shields are pinned on the front of the uniform over the left pocket or carried on the detective’s belt. Detectives do not wear uniforms, but wear dress shirts and ties.
Rochelle Groveau, co-owner of Creative Culture Insignia, is the artist behind the designs. And she lives in Syracuse.
“I was thrilled to do this for my own home town,” Groveau said.
Groveau has designed many badges and patches for law enforcement agencies across the country.
She said police agencies want their badges and patches to be unique and have some symbol that identifies them with their community.
For Syracuse, that is Antelope Island.
Atkin’s officers took photos of the island and Groveau incorporated their ideas into the design.
“We had multiple, different versions of the patch until we agreed on the final one,” Groveau said.
The patch shows the island with the causeway going across the Great Salt Lake.
Groveau then took the patch design and incorporated it into the badge design.
The badge also has the island as a focus, instead of the seven-point star that had been in the center of the previous badge.
Atkin said badges that have stars, whether it is five-point, six-point, seven-point or eight-point, are usually associated with sheriff’s departments. Most police departments are no longer using the star in their badge design.
The badges cost $75 each and the patches are $3 each. Atkin said when his officers decided they wanted the new badges, the department set aside funds it had in its budget to pay for the new patches and badges.
Atkin said the department decommissioned or removed the pins from the back of the old badges and have allowed the officers to keep them as mementos.
