AP WASHINGTON 

When thousands of National Guard forces and law enforcement officers locked down Washington during racial protests and the Jan. 6 riot four years ago, the blur of camouflage and helmets made it nearly impossible to tell the difference between cops and troops. This year’s inauguration will be different. National Guard leaders have authorized the use of a special shoulder patch with the Guard motto “Always Ready, Always There”, to ensure that people coming to the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump on Monday will know who is who.

“It is to make sure it’s easier to identify who’s participating for the National Guard,” said Brig Gen Leland Blanchard II, adjutant general of the Washington, D.C., Guard. The patch, he added, will “connect each of the participants from the National Guard back to the mission set, back to what they’re doing and the importance of participating in this peaceful transition.”

The new red, white and blue patch also depicts a minuteman, long a symbol of the Guard that harkens back to the Revolutionary War. The key, said Army Col. Larry Doane, a senior Guard leader, was to provide a visible way to distinguish the troops. “It’s tough these days where it feels like every law enforcement agency and everybody out there wants to wear the same camouflage pattern that I’m wearing,” Doane said. “There’s a very, very long tradition in our country about discomfort with the military policing a population, and we want to stay in step with that.”

Officials say the US government is far more prepared this year for any emergency or incident. About 7,800 Guard troops from more than 40 states and the US. territories will be on duty, and they have already begun flowing into Washington. Blanchard said one change this year is that the troops are coming in a day or two earlier “so that we can ensure that as we’re building up, we’re again keeping those lines of communication clear, and that we’re not overwhelmed with a large number of folks coming in in a very short period of time”.

Having the swearing-in and parade indoors, due to the frigid weather, will likely cause some shifts in where troops may be positioned, but no other major changes because troops will still have to secure the area around the Capitol.