Patch Trading Policies?

[Officer20]

Do any of your departments have official policies regarding patch trading? My Chief asked me to draft something, and I'm looking for a starting point. I've seen a lot of police department web pages that advise how they handle patch trading, but I've yet to see an actual policy...

Thanks in advance.

[Joeyd6]

If I remember correctly, the LAPD has something. Every written policy I have seen requires a patch be sent with SASE and in return, one will sent back, however patch requests are only filled for agencies or LEO's and proof must be submitted.

I found these for you:
1) Patch Trading Policy
2) Uniform Patch Trading Policy - Rancho Cordova Police Department
3) Patch Policy
4) O'Fallon Police Department | Police Patches
5) Patch Request
6) Hanahan Police | Patch Requests

[Citicop]

I have to have direct authorization from my chief before I can disseminate any Department Patches.

-Citicop.

[Buffboy]

My sheriff's patch policy is very simple, not allowed. He has been sheriff for over 20 years, his predecessor(another long time office holder) had the same policy. If someone claims to have one of our patches, it is a fake.

[retdetsgt]

My dept. doesn't get involved in patch trading and doesn't care if we do. One of our homicide detectives traded a patch every time he went to another city to do an interview or pick up a suspect. He had a big display of them near his desk at work.

That being said, all the trading I know of is between sworn officers, never civilians.

I don't trade nor collect them, but I had a few laying around when I retired that I've sent to RP members. But I don't want one back.

Edited to add:

Thinking about it, my department tends to be reactive rather than proactive on issues like this. Unless a problem arises, they aren't going to bother with regulating it. I don't know of any cases where someone has displayed an arm patch and said they were a police officer.

For a while around here, it was a fad for some people to put different baseball caps behind the back seat of their cars. A friend of mine's son put one of our caps with the patch on it in the back of his car along with a bunch of other non police caps. An officer from another city stopped him and confiscated the cap. My friend had to go to that department to retrieve it. Personally, I thought that was a little over the top considering the way the kid had it displayed. And to my knowledge, there's no law against owning or showing a patch in that manner. He wasn't representing himself as a cop, he was just proud of his Dad.

[patchcop]

In my state you can only trade face to face with another officer. There is no regulation about trading patches but it is not allowed to wear a patch if you aren't a LEO. Impersonating a police officer is a crime here and there.
And to the OP, if you want to trade a patch or two, LMK. I collect since 1989 and have a bunch in my trade stock.

[Officer20]

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

I saw (and printed) most of those web sites that have patch trading policies, Joey. I appreciate you doing some digging for me, though. I guess I was looking for something more formal. Something you would actually see in a policy such as:

02.06 UNIFORM PATCH TRADING

02.06.01 Purpose
To establish regulations for the use and distribution...

02.06.02 Policy
Its is the policy of....

02.06.03 Definitions
A. Department Patch - Any official shoulder patch...

02.06.04 Regulations
A. Ordering and Distributing Department Patches
1. All employees..


Something along those lines. I guess most departments handle this informally. Maybe I'll try to nudge the Chief in that direction.

Patchcop - I'm willing to trade - as soon as the Chief authorizes it with this policy lol
Also, you mentioned that you could only trade face to face in your state - is that in writing somewhere that you could point me towards?

[patchcop]

Patchcop - I'm willing to trade - as soon as the Chief authorizes it with this policy lol
Also, you mentioned that you could only trade face to face in your state - is that in writing somewhere that you could point me towards?

No, there is nothing on one of the homepages in my state but it is an unwritten law. If you don't know an officer you cannot get a patch on an official way. (Except patch shows, ebay etc.)

There are other states in Germany esp. Saarland, where it is very, very hard to get a patch from. The officers get the uniforms from the state and have to give back the shirts with patches when they change uniform items.

LMK when your chief sings the papers. What dept. do you work with? I'm with the Nordrhein Westfalen State Polizei.