150 years ago this week, to start 1862 off on the right foot, Washington’s finest debuted new uniforms. The new uniforms were described with effusive praise in the December 31, 1861 edition of the Washington Evening Star: “The Metropolitan Police will appear in full uniform on the 1st of January. The cap is of blue cloth, of a very small pattern, and apparently well adapted to the service for which it is intended. The coast is of dark blue cloth, made as an over-coat, double-breasted, with two rows of handsome gilt buttons, upon which within a handsome wrought wreath appears the initial letter ‘P’ in the old English character. The coats for the sergeants and patrolmen differ only in the fact that upon the back skirt of the coast the former have six of these buttons, and the patrolmen have four. The pants are of the same colored cloth, with a neat white worsted coast in the sideseams. The staffs intended for use upon special occasions are similar in form to the one in common use, but are more handsomely turned, of rosewood and polished. The entire outfit is a very great improvement upon the uniform of the police.