CPPD lieutenant makes a historic find
By Terry Murry on Monday, April 18th, 2022 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
COLLEGE PLACE — College Place Police Lt. Robert Benfield and his wife found out last week that estate sales are a good place to score deals on interesting or hard-to-find items of value. To their surprise they discovered two old College Place Police Department uniforms at a local estate sale.
The day before Benfield and his wife found the uniforms, Benfield and CPPD Chief Troy Tomaras were discussing how to locate an old original department uniform, which isn’t included in the city’s historical collection. Specifically, they wanted to locate the original shoulder patch which was grey with black letters and spelled out “College Place Police” over a portrait of George Washington.
The CPPD had some old photos of officers wearing the old uniform with the original patch. Chief Tomaras had asked several of the retired officers and found that none had the historic patch in their collection.
The day following the discussion between Tomaras and Benfield, not only was an old uniform located, but it had the sought after patch too. Benfield was so excited about his find, he texted Tomaras who responded, “We just talked about that yesterday!” Benfield shared the story with the estate organizer who generously donated the old uniforms to the city.
Established in 1942, the College Place Police Department was originally patrolled by U.S. Marshall Henry Adams. In 1945, the city was incorporated and the police department started adding officers. The original uniform was believed to have been used through the 1950s before being replaced with a French blue uniform. Today officers wear a dark blue uniform with a modern patch designed by College Place High School student Alex Kjeldgaard in 2017, the fourth patch to be worn in the department’s history.
