April 12, 2023 Law enforcement officers across Texas have been posing for photos in beds of bluebonnets and challenging other departments to follow suit and post them online.
By Vincent T. Davis Source San Antonio Express-News Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Spring in Texas brings pastures and fields blooming with the symbolic state flower and, in recent years, the viral #backtheBLUEbonnet challenge.
Law enforcement officers across Texas have been posing for silly photos in beds of bluebonnets, challenging other departments to follow suit.
In San Marcos, police officers sit in the blooms and play patty cake. Georgetown officers feature their K-9 companion. Boerne police officers assured viewers that “no bluebonnets were harmed,” during their photo session.
There isn’t a definitive date when the trend began. In 2015, a Cedar Hill Police Department tweeted a photo of an officer sitting in bluebonnets, sans the hashtag. Four years later, a Round Rock police officer posted a photo to Twitter and used the hashtag.
The trend has spread beyond Texas. Police officers in Jonesboro, Ark., lamented that the state doesn’t have bluebonnets, but they struck poses in the next best thing — blue tulips from a nursery.
Most law enforcement posts include tips — and a warning — for residents to follow before they engage in the Lone Star tradition of getting portraits in a field of bluebonnets.
* Signal before entering or leaving the road.
* Park off the road (off improved shoulders) parallel to the road in the direction of traffic.
* Do not cross traffic lanes on foot to the flowers.
* Obey signs that prohibit parking along a stretch of a road.
* Do not enter private property without permission.
* Failure to follow these rules of the road throughout the year could result in a ticket.