Having frequented many pubs here locally in NYC over the years, as well as when traveling, I’ve often noticed police or fire department patches hanging on walls behind the bars. Some pubs have vast collections that include some from far away places across the US and the world. Presumably the patches are given to the pub by a police or fire department member who is visiting.
Googling it and how common this is, tells me that there is some kind of tradition behind this having to do with solidarity of the various forces.
Do police and fire departments give out these patches to distribute prior to their members traveling out of town? I assume it varies, but do the members have to pay for these, or is there some agreement that these are provided by the departments to maintain these traditions? I wonder if some pubs just buy a boatload of them to give their bar an authentic look.
Probably.
My ex-BIL is a fire fighter. Any time he goes on vacation he brings a bunch of t-shirts from his department to trade with other departments. It wouldn’t surprise me if he brought other swag for other places as well, ie patches or stickers for bars that collect them.
I don’t think it’s really all that different, other than remembering to bring them, than bars that have dollars stapled to the wall or bras hanging from the ceiling.
Yes. I know policemen that trade patches and other identifying items from their departments. Where I’ve seen it most is a policeman will visit the local precinct when out of town, possibly for a trade or just to be given a patch or other identifying item. I know firemen do this also but haven’t seen how it’s done personally.
I take patches with me when I travel. Also my challenge coins in case I see some bros at a bar or restaurant (I’m not buying a bunch of drinks while I’m on vacation golnabbit!) I’m allowed so many patches every year after that I have to pay for them out of my own pocket. Also, not allowed to sell them on Ebay unless they’re the ones I paid for.
As usual, with anything involving specific practices in PD/FD, the answer is going to be ‘it depends’.
It depends on the department & how tightly they control them. At our dept, I never get my hands on them. If I order new uniforms the patches are sent to the uniform company & all I get is my new shirt all completed with all patches sewn on in the appropriate place. However, if you go to a big city with thousands of cops or firefighters they process may be different; you may order from one of a handful of authorized places & provide them with the patches to sew on in which case the individual cop or firefighter gets them in hand regularly.
I know I can go into many firehouses & buy a station (tee-)shirt if I wanted to, & presumably patches, too. A station tee is for that particular firehouse, not the FD as a whole so the shirt will say Ladder 8 or Engine 2 or ___ & have that house’s logo / saying printed on it. If they have them for sale to the public it’s easy for an individual member to buy a couple to distribute on their far off vacation location.
I had reason to be in FOP (Fraternal Order of Police union) HQ one time. They had a store, including uniform shirts & patches that I (presumably) could have purchased. I didn’t want anything so never went up to the register but I do remember thinking if I wanted to impersonate a cop this was the place to go shopping. I’m guessing I could have said that Officer Jones is my BiL & I’m buying him a birthday present if I was asked at the register.
I have also seen from some of the online places that certain items are restricted & you can only order them with a dept email or by sending them a P.O. on letterhead; mainly things that say “Police” or “Sheriff” on them to prevent impersonators but I could design & order Straight Dope Fire Dept patches if I wanted to & order 100 or 1000 if I so desired.
After a few years it’s almost impossible to not have a bunch of patches. After a few years uniforms wear out but the patches look fine. I won’t throw out the uniform with the patch so now I have extra patches. Multiply that by a couple of decades and now I have a bunch of patches. Or I could go to the uniform store and buy as many as I want.
My dad worked for the Government and there was a shop in a nearby town that sold all sorts of uniforms and patches of various government jobs, and you had to show your government ID to actually buy anything but you weren’t limited to buying your own stuff. I remember he bought a few cool patches via that.
It’s a thing, members visiting other fire departments while on vacation and swapping such items. I have not heard about pubs but I can see it. But that thing has faded quite a bit since 9-11 under advice from homeland security and we are now very hesitant to give out official wears which contain patches, but we do make quite a bit of public wears like t-shirts with our name on it. I can’t say it doesn’t happen, but it is much more guarded now.
A NASA research center is like a small town. It has a hospital, recreational facilities, travel agency, bank, PX (gift shop), several places to eat and their own fire department. One time I was hosting a small conference and one of the visiting engineers was also a Fire Chief. He arrived in a decades old, but perfect shape, station wagon in full trim. I had him follow me to the event location but on the way our own chief spotted him and pulled us over! A visiting Fire Chief! Holy cow, you would have thought he was the president or something. After chastising me slightly for not notifying him, our chief took us on a tour of the facilities including a drive onto the airport in the latest crash truck with water cannons. When we met the crew on duty patches were traded all around. I wonder if the chief had a special patch?
