My credentials:
My name is T.A. Bogaards -aka Tom - and I'm a police officer working for the Dutch National Police. I'm assigned to the Zeeland District and based at Kapelle station. Zeeland is the coastal province in the south-west of The Netherlands. I have been in law enforcement since 1983 and I loved every day of it! I work the Patrol Unit and am a member of the Explosives Reconaissance Team.
ERT patch Zeeland is one of the 25 police districts we have these days. It's the orange colored part of the map.
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For a long time we had 2 major police forces in The Netherlands. They were the "Gemeentepolitie" = (City Police) and the "Rijkspolitie" = (State Police). Due to a reorganisation back in 1993 they were both melted into todays National Police Force. Both forces had their own hat badges and patches. But because of the merger a complete new police logo was designed. Also a breast badge was designed to wear on our jackets. I started out working with the former Rijkspolitie (State Police).These are the hatbadges of the forces. F.L.T.R.: old City Police, old State Police and our new, current one:
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And here are some of the obsolete patches:
1=Railroad Police, 2=State Police, 3=City Police, 4=State Highway Police, 5=State Police/ River Patrol
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