Paris Police Chief Mike Dailey displays his department’s new patch. Jon Bolduc/Sun Journal Buy this Photo
PARIS — Police Chief Mike Dailey thought the department’s patch was a bit impersonal. Modeled after the New York City Police Department, it didn’t have a local connection.
So Dailey set out to change the design.
“Traditionally, our patches have had just ‘Paris Police’ on them, with a state seal,” he said. “Nothing to really connect to anything else. So, we started to do some research, some ideas, brainstorm with our staff, even with (Town Manager Dawn Waisanen) to come up with something.”
They hit on a local angle: The Paris Manufacturing Co. was a leading producer of sleds at the turn of the century. In 1904, the company employed about 300 people and was turning out 1,500 sleds each day. Dailey found an image of a Paris Manufacturing Co. wagon online.
“I like the shape and direction of it,” he said. “It represented a big company that was here for a long time. I felt as though a lot of people in the community still had something manufactured by the company.”
The change also presented a chance for the department to honor the two local police officers who had fallen in the line of duty. Patrolman Timothy L. Willard was shot and killed in 1978 after stopping a man for operating with a suspended license. Patrolman Carroll W. Millett was killed in an automobile accident in 1982.
“I wanted something on the patch to memorialize them,” Dailey said. “None of our staff ever worked with those two and didn’t know them personally, but we still had that connection. They paid the ultimate sacrifice for our community. We don’t want them to be forgotten. The stars represent their retired numbers, so they’ll always be there.”
The patches made their debut at Paris Community Day on Aug. 17. Dailey said he hopes they spark conversation and provide a way for citizens to connect to the department.
“(The patch) tells a story,” he said. “Someone might come up and say, ‘Hey, what’s the significance of that? What does that mean?’ It was manufactured here, just that piece may generate some conversations with people who aren’t police-related.”
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