TYPE: Badge of office. Worn by uniformed Motor Officers of the San Antonio Police Department.
DESCRIPTION: All metal, usually silver in color, diamond shaped with elaborate exterior scroll work at each of the four points. Within the diamond is a close but not exact copy of what would become the seal of the City of San Antonio, designed in 1925. The badge does not reproduce the letters within the city seal that spell TEXAS between each of the five points of the central star and the narrow banner that has LIBERTATIS CUNABULA has been replaced with a wider banner that reads MOTOR POLICE.
USAGE: These Badges are examples of the badge worn by motorcycle officers on the exterior of their uniform, upper left chest. In March 1927 the legislature of the State of Texas amended the laws on the prosecution of speeding. No peace officer could arrest for the violation of speeding UNLESS he was dressed in a “cap, coat and trousers of a dark grey color” (dark blue was added in 1929) AND wearing a badge that is “diamond-shaped” AND he could only pursue a speeding vehicle with a motorcycle. Such silliness came to an end in 1931 with SCOGGINS v THE STATE OF TEXAS. In which appeals court judge Offa Shivers Lattimore excoriated the legislature.
PERIOD OF USE: 1927-1931.