To celebrate their department’s 125th anniversary, Port Townsend Police Department officers are updating their image. Specifically, they are paying for new badges and patches out of their own pockets.

“We wanted to be reflective of the department we have now, and what we’re doing here,” Officer Luke Bogues, department public information officer, said.

Bogues said about 200 new shoulder patches and about 24 new badges have been ordered. He said the patches cost about $2 apiece and the badges are $85 and slightly heavier than the old design.

“They have a pretty good weight on them,” Bogues said.

According to Bogues, Officer Nate Holmes spearheaded the effort to design the new badges. Since joining the department in 2007, he wasn’t content with the old badge design. The old badge, in use for decades, is a type and design used by agencies across the country. The new badge, featuring an image of Port Townsend City Hall, is unique and found only on the chests of officers here, according to Bogues.

After floating the idea to design a new badge, Holmes began penciling ideas on paper and passing the sketches around the office. Changes suggested by other officers were incorporated in a final design.

Not in the budget

Ultimately, Chief of Police Conner Daily approved the design to be made, but with one stipulation: tight budget times made purchase of the new badges cost-prohibitive.

Officers used their own money to pay a manufacturer to professionally create the design and begin production.

"The officers realized the 125th anniversary of the department was approaching. They wanted to do something special to acknowledge the storied history of this department dating back to the late 19th century," Daily said. "The patrol staff wasn't deterred when told money wasn't in the budget for this undertaking; they took it upon themselves to recognize the dozens of officers who preceded them in policing this community."

Bogues said there wasn’t money in the budget to alter officer uniforms and put the new shoulder patches on. He said Holmes, A U.S. Army veteran (1985-2008) who packed a sewing machine to Iraq, has given tailoring lessons to colleagues demonstrating how to apply the patches.

Bogues said Holmes had the sewing machine so he could work on torn uniforms while in the military and “not wait for the quartermaster to replace something and just replace it himself.”

Unlike the old generic badges, the new shields are custom-crafted for each officer by featuring individual badge numbers.

The custom-made badges depict a three-dimensional image of City Hall as it existed when construction was completed in February 1892, according to a release from Bogues. City Hall fills the center of the shield-shaped badge, and the steep towering roof of the building stands tall against a polished metal backdrop. City Hall’s vaulted roof and third floor were removed and replaced with a flat roof after suffering storm damage in 1945.

The badges feature the Roman numeral CXXV – 125 – representing the anniversary of the department in 2013. Officers received silver badges with gold highlights, while supervisors received gold badges with silver highlights.

New shoulder patches show a familiar sight to many city residents, according to Bogues’ release, portraying a tall ship in calm seas on Port Townsend Bay silhouetted by moonlight. The new patches are a simple design featuring blue, silver, white and black.

Holmes used the schooner Adventuress for inspiration when designing the shoulder patches after noticing the boat in the middle of a graveyard shift, according to Bogues.

"The badge is a symbol of service and a source of pride for a police officer,” Daily said. “With the inclusion of our City Hall, the badge is now a source of pride for the community as well."