Sanford, FL PD rethinks it’s awards
Russel sends us a link to Military Times blog Battle Rattle which reports that the Sanford, Florida Police Department is changing the awards that they give to their officers to something that is less like the Department of Defense awards;
“It certainly wasn’t meant to be offensive to anyone,” McAuliffe told Marine Corps Times. “It was a matter of convenience and obviously wasn’t well thought out. But it’s been rectified.”
When the department changed their awards system about 10 years ago, McAuliffe said there wasn’t a lot of access to police-specific awards. Since then, they’ve found places where they can purchase awards designed for police officers, and they’ll move in that direction.
Well, I guess it’s good that they’re finally putting a little thought into it instead of just taking the easier route out of the dilemma. In other related news in the story, Jeremiah Workman, the Navy Cross awardee who brought this whole issue to our attention announces that he’s starting his own stolen valor website;
Workman said spotting ribbons he found questionable just by catching some testimony on TV is good practice for the website he’s launching to call out military fakers. He said he has purchased the domain PhonyMarines.com and plans to out anyone claiming to have a valor award — Bronze Star with “V” or higher — that they didn’t earn.
Welcome to the fight, Jeremiah, I just hope you have a lawyer on your staff.
Category: Who knows
Non issue. Who cares if they call the ARCOM a “police brutality award” or something. If it isn’t being worn on a military uniform or being used to represent the same award as used by DoD then so what? What next, they can’t use the same weapons as DoD? Bah!
Yesterday I caught part of the testimony of the Zimmerman trial, and caught the part where they asked an expert witness (may have been a medical examiner) to give testimony on trigger pull. So the Prosecutor asked her to demonstrate firing the “gun”. So, they just hand it to her, and I wait for someone to ensure that they weapon is cleared prior to her pulling the trigger. I am still waiting. Reminds me of that Don Martin strip in Mad Magazine back in the 1970’s where the attorney is holding the pistol during testimony, the weapon fires, and the ricochet takes out the entire jury.
TRANSLATION:
Police Spokesman: “When the department changed their awards system about 10 years ago, McAuliffe said there wasn’t a lot of access to police-specific awards. Since then, they’ve found places where they can purchase awards designed for police officers, and they’ll move in that direction”.
Translated: “Back then we were lazier then we are today. No one knew how to use the internet (because it was only 15 years old at that time) and our department is not CALEA accredited so we don’t have policies for such issues as awards, ribbons and medals. My little brother (who spends all day inside on his apple and I-telephone gadget) helped us search in the internet thingy and we found out we can purchase nationally recognized awards, ribbons and medals … thanks lil’ Brother! Now that we have removed our heads from our asses … and are breathing better, the increased oxygen levels permit us to think more clearly.”
@ Hack Stone: We watched that live yesterday … 5 former LEO’s, with coffee (and jelly donuts … no shit), and we all were screaming … NO, NO, NO!
“When the department changed their awards system about 10 years ago, McAuliffe said there wasn’t a lot of access to police-specific awards.” That’s just so much bullshit. The first award I got from my department, and the accompanying citation is dated 1979. The awards are metal, not cloth, about the same size and designed to not resemble military awards.
Maybe that was because the people who set up the program were, for the most part, veterans, and they made sure to stay away from anything resembling military awards.
I thought there was a standard set of police award ribbons that are used by large city police departments. New Yawk City for example. Why don’t they simply use what other police entities use to recognize their officers. Or send them that listing of faux Air Force ribbons I sent you. They would seem very appropriate.
@ 6 …. if the department was currently accredited by CALEA, they would have done that!
Clearly the Sanford PD is operating under authority and minimum requirements set forth in the state of FL.
CALEA is the standard to meet, not state minimum standards!
The police Chief of Sanford himself has proven that the department is not up to standard … who in their right mind would say, “we expect riots” or words to that effect.
A real police chief would say, “we will protect the public, will not tolerate any unlawful assembly or disturbance related to the outcome of this trial, and we will be poised to respond to any contingency.”
@8, CALEA, sure is a pain in the a$$, but like a homeowners association, it serves a distinct purpose. Sanford showed pure laziness in that decision. That’s all it is. They had other more appropriate options.
Well good. And all it took was a bit of negative national attention to get it done.
Many, many long years ago, when I was employed by the Department of Defense Police, we were permitted to wear our military decorations on our police uniform.
I never saw any other officers actually do that, but I wore mine on special holidays, especially Saint Patrick’s Day, because the police uniform is blue, and the ribbons for the Army Commendation Medal and the Republic of Viet Nam Campaign Medal featured the color, green.
When I was a firefighter, we had two uniforms.
One was a work uniform that we wore every day in the Fire House.
The other was a United States Navy petty officer dress uniform, which we were required to wear when shopping for groceries or conducting fire safety inspections in people’s homes.
When wearing that dress uniform, I wore my military ribbon rack.
But, they quickly changed the uniform regulation, forbidding any further display of military awards.
Why?
Because the other firefighters, who were older and more experienced than I was, but who had not served in the military, or gone to the Republic of Viet Nam, were JEALOUS, because none of them had any military decorations to wear on their dress uniform!
Mox nix.
Life ain’t fair – – – , and then, we die.
I met Jeremiah a couple of years ago. He was a really nice guy and you’d never guess he’d been through what he had. I wish him the best of luck in fighting the good fight.
Total bullshit form lazy people. I started in cop work in the late 70s and retired about 2 years ago…there’s been lots of places to order cop specific awards. However, one of the police departments I worked at, gave them out for some pretty silly shit.
The first time I was aware of police wearing military ribbons was in 1973, when I was in the 142d Military Police Company at Yong San, Republic of Korea.
It was a scene depicted in a novel, “THE NEW CENTURIANS”, by Joseph Wambaugh, which became a Hollywood movie, where at the Los Angeles Police Academy graduation ceremony, Viet Nam veterans wore their military ribbons on their police uniform.
I thought that was pretty neat, and when I became an officer with the Department of Defense Police, their regulations specified how military ribbons were to be displayed on the police uniform.
But, that was MANY years ago, so maybe now, everything has changed.