It was a video clip watched around the world: A screaming doctor, forcibly yanked from his seat by an officer, who dragged the man down the aisle of a United Airlines jet.

As passengers cried out in horror, two other officers followed down the aisle at the man’s feet. They were draped in black jackets with one word stitched in white capital letters across their backs: “POLICE.”

But on Wednesday, more than three months after the episode, the Chicago Department of Aviation conceded that their security officers were not actually police officers and that the uniforms had been “improperly” marked. It vowed to remove the word from uniforms, vehicles and other insignia in the coming months.

The change represents perhaps the most concrete new initiative undertaken by the department in response to the April 9 dragging that roiled United Airlines and that resulted in a legal settlement and four people being placed on leave.