Scottish Constabulary crest

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The Scottish Constabulary crest was designed by Mr Cairns, Art Master at Dumfries Academy in the early 1930's at the request of the Chief Constables' (Scotland) Club to be a badge to be identifiable with the Scottish Police Service [1].

This came about at a time when there were significant numbers of mergers of police forces around Scotland and more were in the offing. The design therefore would be capable of being adopted as a standard hat badge by police officers around Scotland, thereby avoiding the expense of producing new hat badges whenever two or more police forces amalgamated. Each force generally had its own distinctive cap badge, usually featuring the coat of arms or insignia of the City, Burgh or County which it covered.

The design comprises a Scottish thistle in a wreath of thistle leaves, all on a scroll tablet with the Latin motto: Semper Vigilo (Always Alert), and surmounted by a royal Crown.

As originally designed the badge featured the Imperial Crown (King's Crown) but was not universally adopted until the regionalisation of the Scottish Police in 1975. The badge was then modernised and a new crown applied.

The badge is now worn by all Police officers in Scotland, in metal by Constables and Sergeants, and in an embroidered version by Inspector ranks and above. National police forces operating in Scotland, such as British Transport Police, however continue to wear their own force badge.

In 2000, John Reid, then the Secretary of State for Scotland in the British government, gave the following written answer to a question in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom:

"The crest of the Scottish police service incorporates the Crown. The eight Scottish police forces have a common cap badge incorporating a representation of the Scottish police service crest. Two of the eight forces (Lothian and Borders Police and Fife Constabulary) have individual crests in the form of a coat of arms granted by the Lord Lyon. Both of these also incorporate the Crown."^[1]