Huntington Beach Council OKs Police-Like Badges for Members

Huntington Beach has joined the ranks of California cities that provide police-like identification badges to council members despite concerns about the potential for abuse.

Councilwoman Debbie Cook, who cast the only dissenting vote, said there was no real need for a council member to have a badge, even in an emergency.

“What does the badge tell someone that a business card doesn’t?” Cook asked. “It implies you have some kind of status that is like police or fire.”

Huntington Beach Mayor Cathy Green and Police Chief Kenneth W. Small see the situation differently.

Green, who proposed the badges, said council members occasionally have reason to respond to scenes where a badge distinguishes them as city officials better than their identification card.

The mayor cited the eruption of an idle oil well near Magnolia Street and Pacific Coast Highway last month.

Council members were asked to come to the scene, she said. “There were state, federal and county agencies, plus some of our own,” Green said. Apparently with so many onlookers, media and workers, “other agencies said you can’t have these people walking around. How do we know who they are?”

A badge, she said, would have been helpful.

She stressed, however, that the heart-shaped shields with eagle-wing accents are only for emergencies and do not resemble police or fire badges.

Small chose the badges, which cost $63 each, paying for them from the department’s badge budget.

Small said he was not worried that the badges would be misused.

“I know our council well enough not to have any concerns,” Small said. “I trust them, and I don’t believe any of them will misuse the badge.”

City managers and police chiefs say the practice of issuing badges is common throughout the state, although the numbers are not tracked.

The tradition of displaying a badge on a lapel or in a wallet dates back to the state’s pioneer days, when badges were as plentiful as bison.

“They were very common in the 19th century,” said Kevin Starr, state librarian emeritus. Besides sheriffs and marshals, irrigation inspectors, lodge executives and labor union leaders carried or wore them. “It was a way of signaling what they were,” Starr said, lending them an air of importance or authority.

Recent incidents of council badges being misused has prompted concern among some public officials.

A Baldwin Park councilman recently pleaded no contest in a case involving his badge.

In July 2002, Councilman Bill Van Cleave flashed a City Council badge that closely resembled a police shield to a liquor store employee, coercing her to get inside his vehicle to discuss a dispute over a check, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Terry Bork.

Van Cleave was sentenced this month to three years’ probation, five days in county jail with credit for time served, 400 hours of community service and a $100 fine. He also had to surrender his council badges.