Dubuque Police Department New Uniform Shoulder PatchMasterpiece on the Mississippi
TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
SUBJECT: New Dubuque Police Uniform Patch
DATE: March 15, 2012
Dubuque
bierd
All-America City
1
2007
Chief of Police Mark Dalsing would like to present to Mayor Buol and City Council
Members one of the newly redesigned Police Department patches.
Michael C. Van Milligen
MCVM:sv
Attachment
cc: Barry Lindahl, City Attorney
Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager
Mark Dalsing, Chief of Police
Masterpiece on the Mississippi
TO Michael C Van Milligen, City Manager
FROM Mark M Dalsing, Chief of Police
DATE March 13, 2012
SUBJECT New Dubuque Police Uniform Patch
Dubuque
bad
All- America City
111 I r
2007
INTRODUCTION
This memo will detail the history, process, and implementation of a redesigned Dubuque Police Department uniform patch
BACKGROUND
The Dubuque Police Department has had two uniform patches in its history The first patch was implemented in approximately
1962 Prior to this there was no patch on the uniform The original patch was in place until 1975 when it was replaced with our
current patch When the current patch was selected, departments were limited in their choices and often had to choose from
stock designs Our current patch is a slightly modified version of the San Francisco PD patch
Several times over the years there was discussion about changing our patch design to make it more specific and unique to the
Dubuque Police Department and to get away from a design more readily identified with another agency After I was appointed
Chief, I created a Historical Committee to coordinate projects to commemorate our 175th anniversary in 2012, as well create
ongoing pride in the department's history One of the first of the Historical Committee's many projects was the redesign of the
department's patch
DISCUSSION
Designs collected during previous redesign discussions were recovered and new designs were solicited from officers
Approximately 25 designs were submitted Through a series of department -wide elimination votes, the final design was chosen
The design was chosen based on several images it incorporated The American flag and State of Iowa flag are iconic images
that were present in nearly all of the designs and were images of pride that were strongly desired The center panel with the
fleur- de -lis surrounded by "Masterpiece on the Mississippi" is symbolic of our historical past and our present The fleur- de -lis
represents the City and its founding by Julien Dubuque, and the fleur- de -lis is also often a symbol used throughout heraldry and
history as a symbol of unity and pride The "Masterpiece on the Mississippi" represents the current state of Dubuque as the
showcase of the region The words honor, pride & integrity are words commonly associated with the profession of law
enforcement and are key words we are instilling within the department The shape of the patch, background color and script
colors were selected to remain consistent with current uniform colors and standards
We sent the design to mukiple vendors and reviewed their efforts in accurately representing the original design art Our current
patch's vendor submitted the most accurate representation of the design art and was selected to produce the new patches The
finished patches have been received and will be distributed to officers after the design is formally presented to the City Council
RECOMMENDATION
Once released, the patches will be implemented over the next several months, with a full change -over by the fall of the year