update on that police uniform purchase

The plot thickens...turns out there are a number of surreptitious ways to get the necessary NYPD patches.  The more people I talk to the more shady tips I get.  So far what I've been told is that if I go to one particular police uniform store and explain I am a background actor "they will fix me up." Not exactly sure what that entails on my part--meaning if I have to pay anybody off to get them. Then another person told me that her cousin who is a cop bought her uniform, patches, and badge. Then another person told me that sometimes the production company will give them to you but not really sure how that happens.  Another told me that I should get to know a cop well enough to ask him/her to get me some patches--somehow, I just don't think that is going to happen. Another person told me that at the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market (just up the street from me on the weekends), there is one vendor there who sells the patches for 3 bucks each. Truth or rumor?? I'll find out this weekend. Another person told me he bought his from a retiring actor or was it a retiring police officer?? And yet another person told me to try a certain website that makes very realistic fake patches and badges.

My strategy now is to buy the basic uniform (long sleeve winter shirt, short sleeve summer shirt, pants, jacket, hat, gun belt, tie and clip, turtle neck, shoes) from the uniform store that can "potentially fix me up" and if that doesn't work, check out the Hell's Kitchen flea market vendor.  If that doesn't work, I'll probably ask one of the production sets that uses a lot of cops and see what they say.  I'm on a hunt for sure!