To Serve and Protect

保護と奉仕 (hogo to hōshi): to protect and to serve, the police motto. 保護 hogo is protection; と to is and; 奉仕 hōshi is service, the word for church service and volunteer work, with a note of devotion in it; two nouns and no verb, the way a crest says it. The motto is the Los Angeles Police Department's, chosen in a February 1955 contest in the department's magazine by Officer Joseph S. Dorobek, adopted by the academy and then the department, and placed on the patrol cars by city ordinance in 1963. The Japanese keeps the department's order, protect first; the pairing itself was in print in 1934, in a churchman's account of keeping a village Christmas party safe, so it was a Japanese phrase before it was a motto.

This beautiful scroll is the perfect gift for the law enforcement professional in your life.