The chief noted that officers are “readily identifiable” by their uniforms, badges, name tags, hats, and police patches.
excuse me? the only cops i've ever seen wearing POLICE on their outer ware are detectives and undercover simply because they DON'T have a uniform/hat/patch/etc readily viable to other cops so they don't get shot!
The chief noted that officers are “readily identifiable” by their uniforms, badges, name tags, hats, and police patches. From the front, in daylight conditions, yes that's true.
The "POLICE" patch is in big reflective letters on the BACK of the jacket, for situations where it might be nice for people to recognize that he's a cop in dim light from a distance.