By Police1 Staff
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE — After London’s Metropolitan Police banned officers from wearing thin blue line badges, a chief constable in England has offered to pay for the badges for his officers, according to BBC.
The commitment to pay for the badge comes after Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley banned the badge. Rowley told the City Hall’s Police and Crime Committee earlier in July that he was “cautious” about officers “showing allegiance to any cause” on their uniform.
Rowley said in the United States, the thin blue line badge has evolved into a dual representation, serving as a policing symbol and “being used by some hard-right groups.”
“I do understand that officers care deeply and they want to show how they care about their colleagues and that creates a bit of tension, and we’re discussing it in the organization,” Mark told BBC News.
In a tweet, Northamptonshire Chief Constable Nick Adderley said he didn’t have a comment regarding the Met’s decision to ban the badge, but he will “encourage my officers to wear this patch, with pride, as a mark of respect to fallen officers.”
https://twitter.com/NorthantsChief/status/1676720608879558657
“I have offered to pay for the patch, for my officers and staff, (my own money, not taxpayers) if they wish to wear it as I am determined never to allow a minority to twist the meaning of this patch, which risks the memory of fallen being driven into an abyss hushed tones,” Adderley said in a tweet.
In the U.K., the gray union flag badge has a thin blue line running through it. It is made by the Care of Police Survivors charity and sold to raise funds for families of police officers who died in the line of duty.