I will relate how the badge was changed on two occasions. Former commissioned officers particularly will recall that for probably the whole of the twentieth century until about 1990 the badge had remained unchanged. Evidence of this is the photograph of each Commissioner in this period which hangs in the Executive Conference Room on the seventh floor of QPS Headquarters.

It had been suggested that following the Commission of Inquiry, we needed a new motto to get away from the words, ‘firmness with courtesy’. But I have never been privy to why we needed a new badge. Whatever the reason was, Commissioner Noel Newnham in about 1990 championed a competition for a new motto, and at the same time, the new badge was considered. The competition winner with the motto—with honour we serve— was announced as was the layout-design of a new badge.

As a serving member at the time, I anticipated that the badge would be for constables to
senior sergeants—as had been the case for many years—with the commissioned officer’s badge remaining untouched. But a decision was made by someone or by a senior group to have one badge for all grades and ranks. This duly happened with most commissioned officers having to accept the change like many others and say little or nothing.

I knew that Jim O’Sullivan—as a Commander-Assistant Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner—was not happy about the change away from the traditional commissioned officer’s badge. Soon after he took over as Commissioner in November 1992, this matter somehow got on the agenda and/or was raised at a Senior Executive Conference. At least two acting assistant commissioners were attending that Conference—Peter Freestone and myself—and after some discussion, a resolution to revert to the old badge was carried by one vote.

This was the first time under Commissioner O’Sullivan that acting assistant commissioners were permitted to attend the Senior Executive Conference. I know this full well because when I was Acting Assistant Commissioner of the North Coast Region for several months following the promotion to Deputy Commissioner of Jim O'Sullivan, I had to rely on a couple of people who attended the Senior Executive Conferences to provide me with information which I could relay to personnel in the North Coast Region.

My recollection is that the discussion at the conference about the badge did not extend to shoulder boards worn by commissioned officers on their uniform or mess kit. The words ‘Queensland Police’ had been omitted during the Newnham administration and those words had never appeared as part of the mess kit. (Members of the public would always have had difficulty in knowing what organisation a person wearing this kit was from, because of no clear identification being visible.)

The Commissioner, however, agreed that the words ‘Queensland Police’ should be restored to the shoulder boards of commissioned officers and included on the boards worn as part of the commissioned officer’s mess kit. This was done and remains unchanged today. While the restoration of the badge was known to a few, the background to the placement of the words ‘Queensland Police’ on the shoulder boards as mentioned above probably was known only to Commissioner O’Sullivan, former Superintendent Ivan Fels and myself.

A little bit of trivia not widely known or previously published.