Talk:NYPD Uniforms and Ranks/@comment-85.93.211.91-20170817144439/@comment-2601:184:C380:36AA:317F:698F:75E5:EE35-20181021000602

New York City Police officers of all ranks from patrolman to chief inspector wore white shirts as part of the regular uniform from 1929 until 1938. In 1938, the department introduced a light blue shirt with removable collar for patrolmen, while the white shirts were retained for officers in the rank of Sergeant and above. In 1939, the department switched once again to the dark blue uniform shirt for patrolmen and sergeants. Officers in the rank of Lieutenant and above continued to were the white shirt. This shirt color scheme remained in place from 1939 until 1969, when the department once again went back to the light blue colored shirt for patrolmen and sergeants. The main reason for the switch was to tone down the harsher dark blue look of nypd cops to the softer light blue color pattern. This was an age of race riots, civil disorders and war protests, so the powers to be determined that softening the more semi-military look of the police department was in order for mitigating friction and strife. The same rational applied to changing the color scheme of RMP's (Radio Motor Patrol) cars from the traditional green, white and black to light blue and white in 1973. The official departmental arm patch first appeared during the tenure of Police Commissioner Patrick Murphy in 1973. Light blue shirts were once again discarded during the Giuliani years as mayor, when his police commissioner, Bill Bratton, ordered the shirts be changed back to dark blue. Bratton said the light blue shirts made the cops look like "janitors," and in the age of more aggressive policing, the dark blue shirt was restored to its place of primacy as far as the uniform was concerned. All white cars appeared in the early 2000's as a cost savings measure.