TYPE: Cap/Hat piece. Worn by uniformed officers of the San Antonio Police Department.
DESCRIPTION: All metal. Usually a copper tone in color. Some examples have letters and/or numbers painted black. The piece is rectangular. It is topped with an eagle in flight facing left as viewed. Directly above a five-pointed star within a circle. Two groups of feathers act as columns on each side of the circle. A convex banner runs across the piece below the circle with the words SAN ANTONIO. A bar below the banner has the word POLICE. This is the same for all the pieces. Below the bar is a rectangular area upon which metallic numbers could be affixed and those numbers would correspond to the officer’s badge number. There are two known photographs with examples letter spelling out job positions, instead of badge numbers, being placed on the hat piece. Photograph #18 of Officer W.R. Porter (1925) with the word BICYCLE on the hat piece. The other is photograph #15 of Officer Lonnie Crow (1927) with the word CHAUFFEUR on the hat piece. Officer Crow was the emergency car driver.
PERIOD OF USE: 1915 to 1929.