And The Solution for All Security Problems is . . .

Badges!

That's right, the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors approved the cost for new badges for the sheriff-deputies.

According to Sheriff Taylor, (not to be confused with Mayberry's Sheriff Taylor) new badges are needed so "officers would have proper, federally required identification when assisting at major disaster sites" (Danville Register & Bee). Okay, the county has a population of less than 50,000. It's also the largest county in Virginia, and the people are spread all out, mostly on farms. While I realize it is possible, a major disaster would be rare in the county and surrounding areas (which are also very rural). I mean, the only disasters we ever face are droughts during tobacco growing season!

Also according to the Bee, "Each badge would have a serial number for the officer wearing it, and identification shows proper credentials, recognizes an officer’s rank and shows their attributes." When I initially heard the story on the radio this morning, Sheriff Taylor said this was important to Homeland Security and to prevent imitators . . . righto. People in the county KNOW who the cops are, there aren't that many of them! In fact, there are generally only 3 or 4 deputies on active duty at any given time. Are they really so cocky as to think that people out there are just dying to play pretend-small-town-cops?

Even if all of these additions are necessary, why do they have to be incorporated in the badges? Officers also wear patches on their uniforms, couldn't we etch some type of serial number (coded of course, for top security reasons) on the patches?

The best part of all this? Each badge costs $55, which means that county taxes will go toward buying $7,700 worth of the snazzy new badges. But that's okay, it's not like the county has economic issues or has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state or anything . . .