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From our friends at Hemmings Motor News comes this photo of a vintage NYPD "riot bike," from the archives of the American Police Motorcycle Museum in Meredith, New Hampshire.
At the museum, police bikes from as early as 1917 are on display, along with a few select police cars. The collection is dominated by Indian and Harley-Davidson models, but there are others as well. Several military vehicles round out the collection.
The museum has a large collection of period police uniforms on display, many of which are placed on mannequins straddled across the bikes. A movie theater loops vintage police training reels as well as clips from early Movietone newsreels and film.
The American Police Motorcycle Museum will be opening for the season in May; you can visit their website for hours and entrance fees. Group tours are available and active military service people are admitted free with a paid accompanying guest.
The museum is located on U.S. Route 3 (194 Daniel Webster Highway) just south of the intersection with New Hampshire Route 104, the museum is only a few miles north of Weirs Beach and a few blocks south of the Meredith Harley-Davidson dealership.
The photo below, also from the museum’s archives, shows a women’s motorcycle unit in San Francisco during World War II.
One of the better-known badge manufacturers in our region was the Buchlein Badge Company of Newark, New Jersey. Also known as H. Buchlein, the company was founded in the 1800s and many agencies used Buchlein badges. Many agencies still have Buchlein badges in service today. But Buchlein went out of business in 2003.
The photo shows a nearly 100-year-old Buchlein badge for the Essex County Sheriff’s Office.
So what to do if you still have Buchlein badges? Well, the good news is that when Buchlein closed up it was acquired by Smith & Warren and merged with Smith & Warren’s operation. Today virtually all of the Buchlein styles remain available under the Smith & Warren name.
Since the Badge Company of New Jersey is a distributor for Smith & Warren products, a call to us will get you the badge you need.
And what if you need repairs made to an older Buchlein badge? There’s good news there, too. Buchlein badges do not carry the lifetime warranty like the new badges, but many basic repairs can be performed for a reasonable price.
Better yet, the Badge Company of New Jersey accepts old Buchlein badges under our exclusive badge "trade-in" program, so that you can get a discounted price on a new badge.
As we say, "We’ve Got Your Badge."
Here is a story of a clueless and luckless crook not far from our offices.
Drunk from a St. Patrick Day party, for reasons that have not been explained this guy was reportedly "tossed out of a car" in the early hours of this past Sunday.
For reasons also not explained, he then decided tried to break in to the nearest house. He tried the credit card trick to jimmy the door lock, albeit it with a gift card rather than a credit card. This failed, however, due to the presence of a deadbolt lock.
Coincidentally, the homeowner soon arrived, returning home from his overnight shift on the local police force!
Among the things the homeowner discovered was the gift card still in the door. He called his colleagues, and while he and a fellow officer were searching the area, a cell phone rang.
The sound of the cell phone was coming from under a table on the deck, which had a winter cover over it. The officers found the would-be burglar under the table.
The drunken fool now has a somewhat more comfortable place to sober up: The county jail, with bail set at $25,000.
What are these two Jersey City police officers doing?
It may appear that they are simply standing by idly, but they are in fact doing their jobs. Under a contract between the police and the producers of the lowbrow television series Jersey Shore, these officers are standing watch over the house of Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi and Jenni "JWoww" Farley.
The contract requires the police to watch not only the house but also the cars of the Jersey Shore duo. This is true even when the two women of dubious virtue are not even there. Given all the attention being paid to the show and to its pseudo-celebrities, the potential for vandalism is real.
If this house were across the street from ours we would not give it a second glance, but it appears that there are plenty of people for willing to trek there for an experience related to so-called reality TV.
This is not a "golden age of television."
Photo courtesy of The Jersey Journal
We have blogged previously about Carbon Motors, the Indiana-based company that has been planning to build its own unique diesel-powered police car.
This week, the company was denied a Department of Energy loan under the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program, a program created under President George W. Bush and continued with President Barack Obama. It is intended to provide capital to the automotive industry for backing vehicles that meet higher mileage requirements and lessen the country's dependence on foreign oil.
Carbon Motors’ plans have been ambitious. Production of the E7 police vehicle was supposed to begin this year, and the company claims to have interest in the car from more than 500 law-enforcement agencies. But the denial of this loan will be damaging if not crippling to those plans.
Since our founding in 1974, the Badge Company of New Jersey has partnered with the most respected manufacturers in the industry, to bring you the greatest availability of badge styles and features. In addition to offering our own line of custom badges, we carry the complete lines of products from these partners – more than any other badge source.
One of our partners is Smith & Warren, and this year, Smith & Warren has introduced The Badge of Life, a badge designed exclusively for EMS professionals.
The Badge of Life is a distinctive design that features the star of life positioned at the top of the badge and a custom center seal that reflects the EMS professional’s pledge to Save, Serve, and Respect.
Two models are available that have either a solid metal star of life polished and electroplated to a brilliant silver or gold finish, or a classic blue star of life finished with the highest quality hard-fired cloisonné enamel.
With a variety of finishes, attachments, lettering and EMS center seal options, The Badge of Life can be customized to meet individual needs. Using Smith & Warren’s Visualbadge technology customers can also customize and preview The Badge of Life right here on the web site of the Badge Company of New Jersey. Just specify style S623 for The Badge of Life with a polished metal star or style S623E for the Badge of Life with an enameled star.
Smith & Warren, The Badge of Life, and Visualbadge are registered trademarks of Smith & Warren.
In today’s news, an abject tragedy and a small measure of justice.
The tragedy was the school bus crash in South Jersey this morning that badly injured more than a dozen elementary school students and killed one of them, an 11-year-old girl. That she was the daughter of a New Jersey State Trooper only makes the pain greater.
The small measure of justice was the conviction today of the killer of Lakewood police officer Christopher Matlosz. Matlosz was executed as he sat in his patrol car last year.
But a murderer’s conviction is small comfort on a day when we are reminded of last year’s tragedy on the heels of today’s heartbreak.
