Law enforcement adopted the use of citation bars as recognition of service and personnel accomplishments from the United States military. The United States military awards and decorations are called military decorations which recognize service and personnel accomplishments while a member of the United States armed forces. Together with military badges, such awards are a means to outwardly display the highlights of a service member’s career. Each of the five military services maintains a separate series of badges and decorations and each have a set of regulations as to how and where they are to be worn on their uniform and at what times they should be worn.
Initially, a military decoration was comprised of a medal and a ribbon. The first awards were comprised of a ribbon that would be worn around the neck. Later, the back of the ribbon came equipped with a metal fastener very similar to a safety pin that would be pinned to the uniform. The medal portion was a gold plated piece of metal that was molded to a specific design with a ribbon attached to the top that could be pinned to a uniform.
Later the military began using colored ribbons that would symbolize the medal. The citation ribbon was cloth material either in a solid color or multiple colors to differentiate the type of award that was being displayed and represented the medal that was awarded. They were and are presently made out of a fabric material and attached to a metal bar for support. These ribbon citation bars were smaller than the original medals and could be worn on uniforms to outwardly display a service member’s accomplishments. These ribbon citation bars could then be worn horizontally and one could have many rows of different bars to represent the service member’s many accomplishments.
Today, law enforcement personnel follow this same concept of wearing several ribbon citation bars which are more manageable for everyday wear. Some departments still wear the commendations over the right breast, very much like the military. Other departments wear all of the awards on the left breast, in a leather citation bar holder. The leather citation bar holder could also hold a badge and nameplate on the bottom, and the all the awards could be worn above the badge. The highest award would be placed at the top of the holder and lesser citations would be below it, in order of importance.
Tags: citation bars, ems badges, fire badges, leather citation bar holder, Police Badges, Police Equipment, security badges, Signature Badges
