{"id":31760,"date":"2023-09-14T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-14T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bayfield-marshals-office-gets-a-name-change\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T07:45:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:45:24","slug":"bayfield-marshals-office-gets-a-name-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bayfield-marshals-office-gets-a-name-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Bayfield Marshal\u2019s Office gets a name change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Bayfield Board of Trustees is scheduled to formally hire Michael Hoguet of Foley, Alabama, to fill the role of town marshal after a monthslong search that began in September. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In the world of Big Tech, name changes are growing in popularity: Google became Alphabet, Facebook became Meta, and Twitter became X.<\/p>\n

In keeping with the times, the Bayfield Marshal\u2019s Office has announced its own name change.<\/p>\n

The municipal law enforcement agency in eastern La Plata County will now simply be called the Bayfield Police Department.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Town of Bayfield is getting ready for growth, both commercially and residentially,\u201d said Bayfield Chief of Police Michael Hoguet, in an email to The Durango Herald<\/em>. \u201cWith this in mind, I felt it was the time for rebranding to the Bayfield Police Department.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMarshal\u201d can carry an old-timey connotation, like conjuring up scenes from \u201cGunsmoke,\u201d the 1950s television show that depicted early settlement of the American West, Bayfield town manager Katie Sickles said. \u201cChief of police,\u201d on the other hand, is more modern and more precisely portrays what the law enforcement agency in Bayfield does and represents, she said.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Bayfield Marshal\u2019s Office logo. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Statutorily, there is no difference between a marshal\u2019s office and a police department. But the Town Board did have to pass a resolution in June approving the name change.<\/p>\n

Hoguet hopes the name change helps the agency recruit officers. The department has had two open positions for more than a year. Now, instead of having to advertise for deputies, which is more closely associated with sheriff\u2019s offices, the agency can advertise for police officers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen advertising nationally, prospective candidates will, majority of the time, search \u2018police\u2019 on job sites when wanting to pursue a job in law enforcement,\u201d Hoguet explained.<\/p>\n

Residents have been curious about the name change and whether it means anything different for their law enforcement agency, Sickles said. But town officials have been explaining there is no difference; it is simply a name change.<\/p>\n

No one has seemed overly nostalgic about losing the Marshal\u2019s Office moniker, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a point of curiosity,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Other municipalities have made similar name changes, she said.<\/p>\n

The town plans to replace badges and uniforms to reflect the name change, and it is looking into replacing the marshal\u2019s office sign at Town Hall. Vehicles will be updated only as they are replaced, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing that,\u201d she said, \u201cbut we also have to be cognizant of our budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

shane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018police department\u2019 helps with recruitment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[731,28,52,1231,51],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-31760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bayfield","tag-headlines","tag-law-enforcement","tag-pine-river-times","tag-police"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31760"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81552,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31760\/revisions\/81552"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31760"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=31760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}