In the story, "On the Sidewalk Bleeding," why did the cop say "A Royal" before he began writing in his black pad?

In this story, we understand that the cop saw only symbolism of the jacket. He saw Andy as a member of a gang and nothing more. In his job, the cop had probably seen much violence between the Royals and the Guardians. Because he summed up the incident and Andy’s life, with that one word, the reader can assume that his report will be influenced by this attitude. He did not understand what Laura meant when she said, “His name is Andy.” The cop responded like the rest of the world. An irony is that it was only when he was dying that  Andy began to understand this himself—that he was more than a gang member.