SAN ANTONIO – It's a throwback to the comic strips and black and white movies of the mid-1900s, but it's making a big comeback in San Antonio.
San Antonio Police Department homicide detectives have become local fashion icons by wearing fedoras while they work cases.
"Detective Duke brought it up to the team. We liked the idea and here we are, the hat squad," said Sgt. Wes McCourt. "What best represents a homicide detective? It's just classic, the fedora."
The wide-brimmed hat's association with law enforcement is said to have begun in the 1950s or '60s in the Los Angeles Police Department. Some have even traced its origins back to the 1930s.
Homicide detectives say they wear them in part to honor those men and women who came before them.
"The words that we hear is they see it as class, professionalism," said Detective Mark Duke. "It's a nod to the old guys."
Detective Michell Ramos was a skeptic of the fedora at first.
"It took some getting used to," she said. "I like it. I thought it was a great concept."
The hat squad has crafted it's own initiation rules. Once a new homicide detective closes their first case they get a fedora. McCourt said it's what the hat represents for him and his detectives that is most important.
"What best represents teamwork than wearing a hat?" he said.