May 23, 2024
Volume 54 - No. 21
by lyle e davis 1,160. What does that number represent? That’s the number of police patches on display at the Escondido Police Department . . .all encased in attractive frames and arranged in a long, long hallway with patches from all corners of the world. This is a fascinating project started by retired Escondido Chief of Police, Mike Stein. Recently, we met with both Chief
Stein and current Chief of Police, Ed Varso. In addition to the patches we had a wonderful recollection of mutual memories over the years of police officers who made up the department, most of whom are now retired. We also learned of Chief Stein’s remarkable career and history. It all started back in the spring of 1982 when Chief Stein, then a Lieutenant, attended the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia for a 10 week training course. While on camps at this Marine Corps base, Lieutenant
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Stein noticed a large number of police patches from a number of different jurisdictions. He came to learn that this was a long standing tradition . . . that students attending the FBI Academy would drop off and/ or trade police patches. Impressed, Stein contacted then Chief of Police Jim Connole, told him of the tradition and suggested the Escondido Police Department might want to start a similar tradition. Chief Connole immediately sent Stein a number of patches to trade with colleagues in his training session. The tradition grew like Topsy. There
were 249 students in each FBI Academy class . . . and they were held every four months ... so within the first year a total of 1000 FBI trainees were exchanging patches along with tales of adventures within their department. From that humble beginning, the Escondido Police Department has now amassed a collection of 1160 patches . . . and counting. Indeed, somewhere within this vast collection is a patch from Scotland Yard that I helped add to the collection. About 25 years ago one of
Patches
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