How to Plan a Police Graduation Party

Being a police officer is serious business but that doesn't mean you can't celebrate your new graduate's accomplishments with a festive bash. Plan a party that incorporates plenty of police-themed elements such as custom invites that look like arrest warrants, a "mugshot" photo-booth station and cop-themed decor.

Make invitations look like arrest warrants or subpoenas. Use phrases such as "Turn yourself in at Joe's graduation party," "Wanted: Your attendance at Amy's graduation party" or "Freeze! Put your hands in the air and proceed directly to Richard's graduation party." Decorate invitations with clip art featuring police badges and handcuffs, and use the classic blue color associated with police uniforms for your main text color.

Stick with cop shades such as blue, white and silver for your color scheme. Tie blue and silver balloons to chairs and make balloon arches to hang above doorways. For centerpieces, use vases with wide bottoms and narrow tops, then slip toy handcuffs around the narrow tops; fill the vases with blue and white flowers. Hot glue toy cop cars or novelty police badges to blue napkin rings for table settings, and hang framed posters of classic police-themed movies such as "Police Academy," "Cop Land" and "Beverly Hills Cop" on the walls.

If your favorite police graduate has a sense of humor, poke fun at police stereotypes with a doughnut bar and trays of candied bacon. Make a cake in the shape of a police badge and decorate cookies like badges. Set out paper bags full of popcorn labeled "Cop Corn" and serve blue and white cupcakes. For beverages, have a bowl of "Police Academy Punch" or pitchers of "The Sheriff's Sangria"; serve drinks in cups with plastic badges glued to the sides.

Set up a photo booth for party guests that looks like a mugshot station. Use poster board to make a height chart and have guests write notes to the graduate on a dry-erase board held in front of them when they get their mugshots taken. For more police-themed fun, make a list of some of the wackier laws still on the books in the U.S., then add a few fake laws to the list. Have guests guess which laws are real and which are false. Send party goers home with gift bags full of police whistles, badges and handcuffs.