Color of the day (police)

The color of the day is a signal used by plain clothes officers of some police departments in the United States.[1] It is used to assist in the identification of plainclothes police officers by uniformed officers. It is used by the New York City Police Department and other law enforcement agencies.[2][3][4]

A plain clothes police officer will wear a headband, wristband or other piece of clothing in the color of the day,[3] and officers will be told of this color at the police station before they start work.[1] The system is for officer safety and first started during the violence of the 1970s and 1980s in New York City.[3]

Purpose

The color of the day system is about officer safety. With so many armed officers in New York City, undercover police officers need to have an easy-to-use system to provide for discreet identification of plainclothes officers by uniformed ones.

History

The now-defunct NYPD Street Crime Unit started in 1971. From the late 1970s through the early 1990s, crime in New York City was at record levels.[5] Undercover officers were asked to go into the New York City Subway and other such high-risk areas in plain-clothes or dressed as a homeless person as a decoy. Many of these officers feared that uniformed officers would mistake them for criminals in a use-of-force situation.[6]

Many of these officers would dress and pretend to be drunk, homeless, or act as decoy victims in order to catch muggers who were attacking those at-risk groups. The color of the day system was developed to prevent friendly fire incidents. In the beginning, colored headbands were given to each undercover Street Crime Unit member.

Other officers would be briefed on that color to allow them to quickly recognize the undercover officers, while the general public would not notice anything unusual. This began the "Color of the Day" system. Later they also used wristbands in a similar manner. Today's officers often dress in the color.

  • Color of the day is mentioned in Shawn Ryan's The Shield, Roger Abell's The Black Shields,[6] Greg Faliis' Just the Facts Ma'am,[1] and Leslie Glass' novel, A Killing Gift.[7]
  • In the Law & Order episode "Bad Faith," Detective Lennie Briscoe identifies the color of the day as aquamarine when making an inquiry to the DMV.[8]
  • The color of the day is used as a security method in the Law and Order: SVU episode "Birthright" to catch a child kidnapper. When Detective Tutuola demands a supposed undercover officer reveal the color of the day. When he fails to guess the correct color, Tutuola draws his weapon on him.
  • Color of the day is mentioned in the Blue Bloods episodes "Loss of Faith" and "Pain Killers."
  • Color of the day is mentioned several times throughout the run of NYPD Blue.
  • CSI Cyber season 2 episode 6 – "Gone in 6 Seconds" @ ~17:00
  • Law & Order: Special Victims Unit S17 E17 – "Manhattan Transfer" - When the NY SVU team is tipped off about a party with potentially trafficked underage girls in attendance, they send in Detective Sonny Carisi undercover. A dispute ensues, and the SVU team is forced to rush in when a gun is drawn. Members of the party turn out to be UC (under cover) Vice, and identify the color of the day as "yellow."
  • Color of the day is mentioned in the movie World Trade Center, where it is identified as "green" by the lieutenant during morning briefing in the Port Authority Police Department Bus Terminal Precinct.
  • In White Collar S2 E4 - "By the Book", color of the day is mentioned when setting up a sting with the FBI.
  • In “Shooter” S1:E1 “Point of Impact”, the protagonist, Bob Lee, mentions Color of the Day.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Fallis, Greg (1999). Just the Facts Ma'am: A Writer's Guide to Investigators and Investigation Techniques. Writer's Digest Books. p. 139. ISBN 0-89879-823-X.
  2. ↑ James, George (24 August 1994). "Police Agencies Share Rules for Recognition". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
  3. 1 2 3 Krauss, Clifford (24 August 1994). "Subway Chaos: Officer Firing at Officer". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-10-05.
  4. ↑ Netflix Television Series "BLUE BLOODS" - Season 3, Episode 19 "Loss of Faith" at time index 22:03 (in); Statement by Police Commissioner Regan (played by Tom Selleck)
  5. ↑ "New York Crime Rates 1960 - 2007". The Disaster Centre. Retrieved 2009-08-03.
  6. 1 2 Abel, Roger L. (2006). The Black Shields. AuthorHouse. p. 535. ISBN 1-4208-4460-1.
  7. ↑ Glass, Leslie (2003). A Killing Gift. New York: Onyx Books. p. 130. ISBN 0-451-41091-2.
  8. ↑ "Bad Faith". Law & Order. Season 5. Episode 20. April 26, 1995. NBC.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.