Chief David Wray says the cleaner look is more in line with the department’s mission.
By The News & Record (Greensboro, N.C.)
It seems nothing at the Greensboro, N.C. Police Department is safe from change these days.
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First came announcements from new Chief David Wray that he will consider reversing major decisions made by his predecessor, Robert White, including switching back to a four-district system, centralizing robbery and street-drug units and shifting the department’s focus to quality-of-life crimes such as drugs and prostitution.
Now comes the branding.
Calling police cruisers “the most visible piece of government,” Wray said he will begin to phase in a police car with a “cleaner, authoritative, caring look.” The design, which will replace the four-year-old design on all new cars, was on display outside the station last week.
“This is part of a branding effort,” Wray said. “These cars are pretty much a huge billboard that says what we are about.”
What the city isn’t about, it appears, are big block letters and the color gold.
The block letters that read “police” down all four doors on the current cars are replaced with an overlapping police badge and patch on the driver and passenger doors. “Police” was moved to the rear fenders in smaller letters - no longer reading “lice” when an officer opens his or her front door - and “city of” is added to the mention of Greensboro on both sides.
Wray’s biggest beef with the current design is the color.
“I was not happy with what was supposed to be gold on the old design,” said Wray, who took office July 29. “It sort of weathered into a pumpkin.”
A white, reflective stripe in the new design replaces the gold and silver stripe down both sides of the car.
A committee of officers compiled by former chief White came up with the current design in 1999. Wray said he didn’t need a committee - just him and a lieutenant - to come up with the new one.
“It’s more consistent with what we’ve had in the past and reflective of where we want to go in the future,” Wray said.
Newly appointed watch commander Lt. George Hunt didn’t help create the design, but said he is happy with a more professional look.
“The old design was kind of NASCAR-ish,” Hunt said. “The novelty of it kind of wore off.”
To accomplish a cleaner design on the car, Wray took away all mention of 911 on the new design. He doesn’t expect that to cause problems.
“People know to call 911 if they need us,” he said.