Ngan Ho/Standard-Times Sheriff David Jones examines the first Tom Green County Sheriff’s Office patrol vehicle to receive an “In God We Trust” decal. He said the decals will last as long as the vehicles do.

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By Ngan Ho of the San Angelo Standard-Times

The Tom Green County Sheriff's Office has joined law enforcement agencies in Texas and across the nation in putting "In God We Trust" decals on its patrol vehicles.

The first patrol unit was labeled Thursday morning with a sticker on its back end, unveiled outside of a local sign shop in northwest San Angelo in the presence of Sheriff David Jones and a few deputies.

One hundred decals have been made and will be given to the Sheriff's Office, said Peggy McElrath, owner of Adobe Signs & T-shirts.

"I thought I'll just donate them," McElrath said after the Sheriff's Office contacted her business inquiring about pricing for the decals. "We hadn't done anything for the Sheriff's department, and this gave me an opportunity to be able to tell them thank you also for what they do."

McElrath said she has provided product donations to the San Angelo Police Department before, so now it was simply opportune to support the Sheriff's Office. She said her business will make more decals if necessary, all free of charge.

"They have a very thankless job, and they need to be told thank you," she said. McElrath said she did not check the total cost for producing all the decals but guessed it was several hundred dollars.

"To me, having it on there tells the general public that they are a good person because usually if it says God, you can 9 out 10 times bet they are a good person. It tells people a little bit of a stance of where you're at," she said. "I think they (the community) are going to love it. I really do. I think we're ready to hear God more."

First patrol vehicle from the Tom Green County Sheriff's Office to receive "In God We Trust" decal. pic.twitter.com/buQcA7m25N — Ngan Ho (@Ngany) January 22, 2016

"In God We Trust" decals placed on law enforcement vehicles became controversial in recent months when the Freedom From Religion Foundation complained to the Childress Police Department about the agency using decals with those words on its official vehicles. Childress Police Chief Adrian Garcia responded by telling the foundation to "go fly a kite." A co-president of the Wisconsin-based foundation said the foundation was acting on behalf of a local complaint.

In early November, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in an opinion that law enforcement agencies that have "In God We Trust" decals on their vehicles are not in violation of the U.S. Constitution. State Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, and state Rep. Drew Springer, R-Muenster, had asked for his opinion because of the Freedom From Religion Foundation's complaint.

" 'In God We Trust' is our national motto, and we are very proud to display that on our cars," Sheriff Jones said. "It's something that we would like to do. It's something that we support, and I certainly support the sign. Like I said, it's displayed on many different things in the country, so I would like to display our national motto."

Other law enforcement agencies in Texas that use "In God We Trust" decals cover small areas with populations of less than 100,000: San Jaun Police Department, Seagraves Police Department, The Fort Stockton Police Department, Van Alstyne Police Department, Childress Police Department and The Liberty County Sheriff's Office.

Jones said his department is grateful for the gift because it was money the department did not have to spend. Patrol vehicles were to be labeled as deputies trickled in at the end of their shifts or at other opportunities, Jones said.

"It's just a donation. It wasn't something that at this time we were going to take out of our budget to do," Jones said. "So this is a very nice offer from a local business here that wanted to support us and say thank you for what we do, so we're very grateful to them for their expression of thankfulness to our department and to the guys that serve each day."