In 2024, Chief Brady Juell commissioned his team to create a new badge design. This set in motion a nearly 2-year process from original sketches to the pinning of the new badge. While the previous design had served our agency for over 40 years, it was a standard design you'd find around the country. It was time to give our badge some TLC and create something that would represent our city and our history.

The Team

The employees that stepped up to the challenge included Chief Juell, Sergeant Jech, Sergeant Dahmes, Detective Flaten, and Officer Olson, along with another detective who has since moved on to another agency. Savage's previous Communications Specialist Katie Gieseke also assisted with creating design elements and found historical imagery used in the design.

The Process

Over the course of a year the team met to determine the badge's design. They reviewed nearly 30 different options. Their decision was guided by asking, "Is this something that represents the city, the city's history, and the Police Department's history?" Each meeting focused on a different aspect of the process, whether it was the center design, the finish, or the orientation of the badge's elements.

The Design 

The main feature on the badge is the horse and buggy. This piece was taken from an actual image of Dan Patch and Marion Savage. The font of the badge letters matches the city's branding, from our website to our email signatures and our business cards, giving the city's departments a cohesive look. Towards the top of the badge is a banner reading EST. 1958, representing the year the Savage Police Department was established. Some of the more unique pieces of the badge are the "1:55" hidden on the right side of the badge, symbolic of Dan Patch's record time. On the borders at the top and bottom of the badge are 4 gold horseshoes. Typically these locations have X's, but our team decided to replace them with horseshoes to be a better fit for Savage. You may even notice that the horseshoes are pointed upwards to keep any good fortune from falling out.

Congratulations to our team for a job well done! Keep an eye out for these Savage, not average, badges as they make their debut this spring.