Name/Title
Sussex Police embroidered epaulettes c1995 - 2013Entry/Object ID
2484Description
A pair of dark blue cotton epaulettes with embroidered letters and numbers "W627"in silver thread, each with a small blue plastic buttonUse
For a constable to wear on a uniform shirt.Context
When Sussex Constabulary was established in 1968, it was initially not intended for officers to have numbers on their uniforms (Amalgamation Memorandum 1967) even though they were each allocated an alpha numeric warrant number. These warrant numbers consisted of a letter "A" or "B" to designate an officer's sex ("A" for male and "B" for female"), followed by the first letter of their surname and then a number between 1 and 999. These combinations were intended to be unique to that individual and not re-used, but not to be displayed on uniforms. It was only after complaints from the Home Office that these warrant numbers were attached to uniforms, with the omission of the first letter, "A" or "B", which designated sex.
In both Sussex Constabulary and later Sussex Police metal letters and numbers were used on their epaulettes, until the mid 1990s when embroidered ones were introduced, using the same style and size of letters and numbers as previously. These particular ones were issued to PC AW627 Steve Williams, who joined Sussex Police in November 1982 and retired in January 2013. From 1997 Steve worked as a dog handler in a variety of specialist dog roles. He would originally have been issued with epaulettes with metal numbers etc. which would have been replaced periodically. These embroidered ones would have been issued sometime after 1995, when metal numbering was no longer used.
In September 2018 Sussex Police abandoned the use of this warrant numbering system, instead adopting gender neutral numbers for all new recruits beginning with numbers prefixed "EA". After the first 999 numbers are issued the prefix will change to "EB" and so on. As well as all new officers being given "EA" numbers, any existing officer that wanted to have a gender neural number was also given the option of being allocated one. At the same time they introduced a different style of epaulette embroidered with the force crest and using plainer and smaller letters and numbers.