For Berben Insignia,
it’s a badge of honor

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

Badges do more than identify police officers to the communities they serve.
When miniaturized and hung from a necklace, badges can make for an attractive piece of jewelry. When mounted on a slab of wood, they can become the centerpiece of an award signifying the heroism and bravery of the recipient or the culmination of a dedicated career on the force.
Replica badges can also work much like a "get out of jail free" card, enabling the lucky holder — most often the spouse or significant other to the actual cop — to skate on a potential speeding ticket.
And in at least one Philadelphia case, a badge has been a lifesaver to the officer behind it, as Carlos Ramos found out on Sept. 16, 2004, when a bullet fired from the gun of an armed-robbery suspect deflected off his badge and away from his vital organs.
For these reasons and many others, Philly cops can thank a Rockledge company that is celebrating its centennial anniversary this year. Berben Insignia, at 820 Fox Chase Road, has been supplying badges to Philly police since the early days of the local force around the turn of the 20th century.
Today, the firm not only has an exclusive contract with the Philadelphia Police Department, but it also supplies and repairs badges for many other law enforcement agencies throughout the region and across the country.
"This is really a family tradition. Everybody in the family has worked here at some point," said Elyse R. Aion, president of the company and daughter of the man who directed its growth to become the Delaware Valley’s leading firm of its kind.
The Aion family can’t claim founding the company, however. That distinction belongs to a Russian immigrant and physician named Wolf Berstein.
Berstein’s first inclination upon arriving in the United States was to start a medical practice, according to Aion. But he couldn’t get the necessary certification because he didn’t pass an English language test.
So instead he found a partner, known today only as a man named Ben, and opened a shop in downtown Philadelphia. The Berben name is a combination of his partial last name and his partner’s first name.
The very public problems with the city’s police force at the time dwarfed today’s hot-button issues such as brutality and profiling. In those days, the police were part and parcel of an underhanded local political hierarchy that muckraker Lincoln Steffens famously described in his 1904 collection of essays, The Shame of the Cities, as "not merely corrupt, but contented."
A decade later, Philly’s finest were the butt of national ridicule in the popular Keystone Cops series of silent-film comedies.
Today, Aion proudly displays a few of those early badges, along with hundreds of examples of those that have been produced since, and the dies used to make them.
"When my dad bought the business, they all came with it," Elyse Aion said.
Her father, Herman Aion, brought his own expert craftsmanship to the venture, however. The original owners sold out in 1957. Aion bought the business five years later. The venture enabled him to utilize the skills he had developed in working with his father as a jeweler, while also satisfying his passion for people.
Herman Aion, who passed away in 2001, was a so-called bench man in the jewelry business, meaning he spent each day sitting at a workbench making and repairing individual pieces. The job lacked the human interaction that he later found with Berben.
"My father was a born salesman," Elyse Aion said. "So, to meet people and go to conferences, this was a joy for him."
Herman Aion partnered with a brother for many years on Sansom Street. The brother eventually left Berben, and Herman relocated the shop to Tenth and Filbert streets. Another move followed to 12th and Cherry streets, but the start of construction of the Pennsylvania Convention Center two decades ago forced a third move.
Over the years, the company secured exclusive contracts to make all Philadelphia police badges, as well as those for the city’s housing authority police, prison officers, sheriffs and fire department personnel. It also makes badges for district attorneys, Amtrak police and Temple University police.
The Camden Police Department is another client, as are municipal departments in surrounding counties. Berben has supplied badges for the Montana Highway Patrol, Tacoma (Wash.) Police and the old Veterans Stadium security force.
Due to the sensitive nature of the commodity, only officers with proper identification can buy badges. The shop keeps photocopies of each customer’s ID on file.
Though the firm specializes in the real deal, when it comes to badges, even Hollywood has come to Berben Insignia. Characters in several prominent movies have carried badges provided by Berben, including Blow Out and The Big Lebowski.
"Anybody who makes a movie in Philly and needs badges comes to us," Elyse Aion said.
She has worked at the Rockledge shop for 13 years. A lot has changed in the business over the years, but much has remained the same, she says.
They still use her father’s old bench and work by hand, using pliers, a soldering iron, hand engraver and polishing wheel.
"We do repairs on-site and get it out the next day," she said. "And we make Philly badges while you wait. My father brought that skill."
The company doesn’t actually make the whole badge, however. Rather, it’s an authorized distributor for Blackinton, the oldest professional quality manufacturer in the country.
The shop is responsible for applying the numbers to each badge and making any needed repairs. The badges are guaranteed for life.
Berben also continues to design custom badges. When the Phillies were playing their final season at The Vet, Berben supplied the commemorative badges. They did the same for the centennial of the Springfield, Montgomery County, police force.
"It has a lot of creativity to go with it," Aion said.
Whenever the firm makes a new badge, it retains rights to the die.
"So nobody can make them but me," the owner said.
She attributes the longevity of the company to the unique product it provides and to the high level of customer service it maintains.
"We sell a product that’s ultimately needed," Aion said. "All police departments use badges. They all need collar brass. You constantly have retirees and new recruits." ••
Call 1-800-8-BERBEN or visit www.policebadges.com for information about Berben Insignia.
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031or bkenny@phillynews.com