This imposing Lieutenant Los Angeles Detective badge dates to the 1930s or 1940s and is known as a Juice Badge identical in all respects to the actual badges issued to regular detectives save only for the numbering. In the 1930s the Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim Davis arranged for what would be called shield days held at the police academy on Wednesdays. Many political friends well-known businessmen actors celebrities and the like who were invited to these gatherings would be invited to lunch at the facility and be given these Detective Lieutenant badges as favors.

Not surprisingly the rank-and-file cops hated them since the badges were often flashed by these folks after being stopped for speeding etc. claiming they were members of the department. The principal means of telling the badges apart from the ones issued to detectives is the numbering in the case of the Juice Badges numbered to four digits (this badge is No. 3347) while the detectives badges would be limited to three digits a more accurate reflection of the number of detectives on the LAPD during the Depression years.

The makers Entenmann and George Schenk are engraved on the back of the badge; the badges like their LAPD detective counterparts are plated brass with a gold finish. The list of recipients of these Juice Badges is a topic of a good deal of historical research especially among those archivists tracing the long and colorful history of the LAPD but the ranks include the likes of Elvis Pressley Errol Flynn and certainly hundreds of other legendary figures from the (mostly) postwar era.

This particular badge has been in the consigners family since it was given to his grandfather a pioneering figure in the early telephone business who would make frequent business trips to Los Angeles and was given this badge on a trip prior to 1945. The badge has been carefully preserved for seven decades and is in largely as-issued and problem-free condition. As was customary with the Juice Badges the pin on the back used to affix the badge to a jacket has been clipped to preclude misuse though obviously with only limited success.