Leechburg police have a new look.
Since Aug. 1, the department’s officers have been wearing dark blue uniforms, new badges and carrier vests over their dark-blue protective vests that read “police” in block white letters on the front and back.
The department’s former uniforms were gray.
Mayor Wayne Dobos said the change came at a good time.
“We are going in a new direction,” he said, declining to elaborate.
The department has undergone plenty of change over the past year and a half.
In January 2018, Dobos named Chief Jason Schaeffer acting officer in charge after then-Chief Michael Diebold was accused of soliciting sex from an agent for the state Attorney General Office’s predator task force who was posing online as a 14-year-old girl.
Diebold later pleaded guilty and was fired.
Schaeffer was appointed chief in March.
The new dark-blue uniforms and carrier vests are the same color worn by many officers in Armstrong County and elsewhere in the Alle-Kiski Valley.
The uniforms include the department’s new shoulder patches.
The department did not replace its officers’ protective vests, but instead of wearing them under their shirt as they had with the old uniforms, they will wear them outside of their shirts.
The department’s three full-time police officers requested the change. Schaeffer said it was getting very difficult and expensive to replace the gray uniforms, a style worn by Leechburg police for decades.
Councilman Alan Tarr, a former chief of the department, likes what he sees.
“The uniforms look neat and professional,” he said.
The new look for the department’s three full-time officers cost about $2,100.
The carrier vests cost $500 apiece, with the borough picking up half the cost and a federal grant covering the rest. Patrolman badges were about $100 each, and the chief’s badge cost about $130.
Each uniform cost about $100. The expense was covered by the already budgeted uniform allowance.
