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Montgomery County police officers now have new patches on their ballistic vests to help the public differentiate between their law enforcement agency and others active in the area, such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In a聽聽on Tuesday, the Montgomery County Department of Police聽wrote that some patrol officers currently wear outer ballistic vests with a cloth badge on the front and 鈥淧OLICE鈥� on the back.
Going forward, all vests worn by聽county patrol officers will have a patch on the back that reads 鈥淢ONTGOMERY COUNTY聽POLICE.鈥�
As of Wednesday,聽all county police officers had received the new patches, police spokesperson Degan Bartels wrote in an email to Bethesda Today.
In a聽Wednesday聽phone interview with Bethesda Today, police spokesperson Shiera Goff said there have been several recent instances聽during which聽residents have confused聽county聽officers聽attempting聽to serve search warrants with ICE officers conducting immigration raids.
Goff said some county officers have been harassed by residents who wrongly assumed they were with the federal immigration agency.
