Uniforms Approved for Consolidated Princeton Police Force

The new badges for the consolidated Princeton police force.

Officers in the united Princeton police force will wear the blue uniforms that Princeton Borough officers wear now, but with a new patch designed by officers from both municipalities.

The new patch depicts a Revolutionary War soldier fighting in the Battle of Princeton,  includes the date 1777 and the words “knowledge, honor, integrity service.” The patch also includes the years the two police departments were founded (1886 for the Borough and 1927 for the Township) and “Est. 2013” to mark the Princeton consolidation.

The governing bodies of the two Princetons approved the spending plan for the new uniforms at a joint meeting Monday night. Borough Administrator Bob Bruschi said both police forces currently spend up to about $30,000 a year on new uniforms. By choosing the Borough’s uniforms and just replacing the patch instead of coming up with a brand new uniform, the town will save money, he said.

“Officers can then be uniformed in the same way,” Bruschi said, adding that much of the cost would not be considered a consolidation cost. “Probably about 60 percent of the cost would be Township costs,” he said.

The Borough uniforms and patches will cost $42,866, and that cost will not be considered a consolidation cost, Bruschi said, because the uniforms would have been replaced anyway and the Borough Police will use their uniform budget from this year and part of the uniform budget next year to cover the cost. The Township uniforms and patches will cost about $53,311. Some of that will be considered a transition cost, he said, though he was not sure of the percentage yet.

“But wouldn’t the officers look a lot better if they were all in the same cars wearing those uniforms,” Bruschi said, expressing his disappointment with the elected officials’ vote rejecting spending $26,000 to repaint some police cars so the Borough and Township cars match.