By KEVIN BERGER, Local Journalism Initiative
In a bid to modernize their organizational appearance and eliminate a potential security issue, the Corman Park Police Service (CPPS) have officially adopted a new heraldic emblem that will now adorn their chest badges, cap badges, shoulder flashes and eventually all of their patrol vehicles.
The new heraldic crest incorporates Saskatchewan’s distinctive gold and green olours, sheafs of wheat representing the municipality’s agricultural heritage, and three interlaced crescents symbolizing Corman Park’s history as the amalgamation of three municipalities.
Atop the emblem is Canada’s Royal Crown, symbolizing that CPPS officers enforce peace and justice on behalf of the Crown in Canada.
This re-brand of the CPPS was announced during a news conference at the RM of Corman Park municipal office on Friday, February 13.
“The new visual identity, which has received formal approval from the Canadian Heraldic Authority and is registered in the Public Register of Arms, Flags and Badges of Canada, represents a significant milestone for the service and the community it serves,” said Constable Kyle Rathgeber, reading from a prepared statement.
CPPS Chief Robert Duttchen, who was appointed to the role at the start of December, said their members have immediately begun to wear chest badges, cap badges and shoulder flashes featuring the new emblem.
The emblem will also be featured on CPPS vehicles, though that will be a slower transition, Duttchen said.
“It just takes time to cycle out vehicles through the normal life cycle, and it wasn’t fiscally responsible for us to try and re-decal a bunch of old vehicles just for the sake of re-decaling them,” he added.
He said two vehicles will be taken out of service this year and the CPPS have procured two vehicles to replace them, both of which have the new heraldic emblem.
Another patrol vehicle will go out of service next year, followed by two more the year after that. Their replacements will also feature the new heraldic emblem, as will all future CPPS vehicles.
Overall, Duttchen estimated that all of their vehicles should feature the new emblem within five years. The CPPS has a total of seven vehicles, including six marked patrol cars and one administrative vehicle.
Duttchen clarified that CPPS actually received the heraldic emblem in 2021 but it was never adopted.
Then, in 2023, the opportunity to use the Canadian Royal Crown was given assent by His Majesty King Charles III, said Duttchen.
When he came on board as the new chief, Duttchen realized this was an opportunity for the police service to assume the new identity.
“This seemed like a natural way for us to modernize our organizational appearance and to make us look more like traditional Canadian police agencies, as opposed to the more generic Saskatchewan law enforcement shoulder flash that we were wearing before this,” he said.
Duttchen also noted in a news release that this new emblem positions the CPPS “as a Saskatchewan leader in adopting Canada’s Royal Crown — a symbol of our commitment to serving this community with the highest standards of professionalism and integrity.”
Adopting the new heraldic emblem also eliminates a potential security issue that was identified by Duttchen as part of a risk analysis he conducted at the request of the Corman Park Police Commission.
He said the old chest badge they were using previously was a generic design ordered from a generic manufacturer, over which they had no control.
Theoretically, that meant a member of the public could call the manufacturer posing as a CPPS member claiming they lost their badge and request a replacement.
“The public can now have confidence when they see a Corman Park police badge, that it’s on a real Corman Park Police officer,” he said.
Duttchen noted the emblem will remain the same even if King Charles III is eventually succeeded.
“We’re pretty confident that that Crown is going to be the one we’re using for a long time,” he said.
When asked why the emblem hadn’t been adopted before, Duttchen suggested that it was mostly a cost issue, as re-decaling police vehicles in particular is expensive.
On that front, the costs associated with this rebrand represent only a small portion of the funds allocated in the CPPS’ 2025 budget.
In fact, the CPPS came under in 2025 due to higher than expected revenue, some lower-than-expected procurement costs and some savings resulting from the resignation of Ron Chomyn as chief back in September.
This allowed the CPPS to fund the equipment transition from their 2026 equipment budget.
Duttchen suggested the overall cost of the changeover was around $9,000, though they would have spent $4,000 anyway just on replacing badges and shoulder flashes.
Overall, this rebrand will not create any additional fiscal challenges for the CPPS, Duttchen said, noting that even when it is time to put a decal on a new vehicle, that will simply be part of the replacement cost and not an added expense.
“For me to spend operational funds to put new decals on (older vehicles), it’s not fiscally prudent, and I don’t think the ratepayers would understand. This re-brand is not about an ego trip … it’s about a new identity for the organization that can carry us into this next chapter.”
On a final note, Duttchen praised the efforts of Police Commission chair and RM of Corman Park Councillor Arthur Pruim.
“His leadership is what has moved us down this road where we are now, and we appreciate that,” he said.
The Corman Park Police Service’s new heraldic emblem can be seen in this side-by-side comparison of their caps and shoulder flashes (top) and on their patrol vehicles (bottom). While members are now wearing the new emblems on their chest badges, cap badges and shoulder flashes, the rollout of the emblem on CPPS vehicles will take several years.