COUNTYWIDE : Police-Patch Buffs to Rub Shoulders

Collecting baseball cards and stamps is fine for some people, but Laguna Beach Deputy Police Chief Jim Spreine’s hobby is closely linked to his profession.

Since he was sworn in as a police officer about 20 years ago, he has collected shoulder patches, badges and other police memorabilia.

He has amassed about 5,000 patches, a collection that he estimates is worth about $6,000. He has patches from every law enforcement agency in Orange County and California, from many cities in the nation and other countries. Some hang in display cases in Spreine’s office; others are tucked away in Tupperware boxes alongside the pig collection of his wife, Linda, who is also a police officer.

Spreine, who recently redesigned Laguna Beach’s police patch, is far from alone in his passion for the little pieces of embroidered cloth.

Patch and badge collecting is a growing hobby among law-enforcement officers and others, many of whom will gather this Saturday in Sierra Madre for the annual Porky D. Swine collectors meet.

Fullerton Police Detective Bill Wallis will be there, looking for California patches that he doesn’t have. Of course, that’s a little difficult since he has about 2,000 patches, at least one from every law enforcement agency in the state.

Wallis has also been collecting for more than 20 years and has some patches that are considered rare. One from Dairyland, which later became La Palma, is valued at about $500, he said.

Other patches that are hard to come by are from the city of Avalon on Santa Catalina Island and from Alviso, a small town in Santa Clara County that was absorbed by San Jose in the late 1940s, according to Sgt. Gary Teragawa of the UC Irvine police.

“There are only two of those in existence that I know of,” Teragawa said of the Alviso patches.

Like many other collectors, Teragawa spends many hours pursuing his hobby.

“About half of my free time, I am either corresponding, talking to people on the phone, or traveling in search of patches, badges, uniform accessories and hats,” Teragawa said.

Things have changed since his early collecting days, Wallis said.

“There were no collecting associations back when I started. A lot of money was spent on postage, sending trade lists and want lists,” he said. “The majority of time was spent on going to individual police departments. Collecting then was kind of an oddity, so they were pretty free with their patches then.”

Some departments will still give away patches, but most charge an average of $2, Spreine said. Newsletters, books and trading shows keep collectors up to date.

The 10th annual Porky D. Swine meet will be held Saturday at 611 E. Sierra Madre Blvd. in Sierra Madre from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $3. For more information, call Gene Gionuzzi at (714) 621-7444.